An alternative history of modern Britain, this book is an exquisite work of cultural, artistic, and philosophical storytelling. It considers ten pivotal artworks – ten disparate ways of looking at the sea – created between 1912 and 2015 by Vanessa Bell, Paul Nash, Alfred Wallis, Stanley Spencer, Peter Lanyon, Bridget Riley, Hamish Fulton, Martin Parr, Tracey Emin, and John Akomfrah. “Looking to Sea” is written by writer and art critic Lily Le Brun and is her first book.

“I am not motivated to tell you about the sea .. What I have tried to do, however, is think with the sea, to use it as a prism into lives and habits and feelings other than my own.”

Lily Le Brun “Looking to Sea: Britain through the eyes of its artists”. Published by Sceptre in 2022. Bought for the Sea Library by myself on Christmas 💙

Photos by Anna Iltnere / Sea Library