The Kingdom by the Sea
Encyclopedia
The Kingdom by the Sea (1983) is a written account of a three month long journey taken by novelist Paul Theroux
round the United Kingdom in the summer of 1982. Starting his journey in London, he takes a train to Margate on the English coast. He then travels roughly clockwise round the British coastline, mainly by train, getting as far north as Cape Wrath. He ends his journey in Southend. 1982 was the summer of the Falklands War and the year when Prince William was born.
Theroux's 1982 walk around the perimeter of Britain shows Thatcher's Britain at its low ebb with unemployment and run-down guest houses.
As usual, he avoids sight-seeing in the form of castles and museums, preferring chance to provide him with insightful encounters. In his leather jacket and oily hiking boots, Theroux marches over scrub and weeds, attempting to use branch-lines and green buses, amazed to find many services curtailed by the prevailing economy. Hoping to stick to a semi-continuous footpath around the coastline, he encounters fully clothed sunbathers and a woman who unexpectedly appears nude in his room whilst he is sleeping. Staying at down-at-heel boarding houses (three-quarters empty) he smells the bacon and beer while being treated by proprietors with a mixture of shyness and suspicion.
There are some memorable passages with the English sitting in cars and staring out to sea and an amusing scene where a thoughtless resident puts his smelly foot on Theroux's arm in the TV room.
In the background is the Falklands War with gloating headlines from the Sun newspaper announcing the sinking of the Belgrano: the Lucketts are off to wave plastic Union Jacks at a departing troopship where everyone says 'this Falklands business' instead of 'the war'.
Theroux meets skinheads, broken cliff paths, army firing ranges, nuclear power stations, the painter John Bratby, 'shallies' (beach huts for bathers) and a schoolboy who wants to change his 'ole fice'. In Butlins which 'had the feel of a concentration camp' and had 'a Jonestown image that combines the security and equality of prison with the vulgarity of an amusement park', Theroux watches the unemployed on holiday. There is bingo in the Regency Building and he later eats rook pie.
The title of the book is taken from the opening lines of the poem Annabel Lee
by Edgar Allan Poe
: 'It was many and many a year ago/ In a kingdom by the sea,/ That a maiden there lived whom you may know/ By the name of Annabel Lee.'
Paul Theroux
Paul Edward Theroux is an American travel writer and novelist, whose best known work of travel writing is perhaps The Great Railway Bazaar . He has also published numerous works of fiction, some of which were made into feature films. He was awarded the 1981 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his...
round the United Kingdom in the summer of 1982. Starting his journey in London, he takes a train to Margate on the English coast. He then travels roughly clockwise round the British coastline, mainly by train, getting as far north as Cape Wrath. He ends his journey in Southend. 1982 was the summer of the Falklands War and the year when Prince William was born.
Theroux's 1982 walk around the perimeter of Britain shows Thatcher's Britain at its low ebb with unemployment and run-down guest houses.
As usual, he avoids sight-seeing in the form of castles and museums, preferring chance to provide him with insightful encounters. In his leather jacket and oily hiking boots, Theroux marches over scrub and weeds, attempting to use branch-lines and green buses, amazed to find many services curtailed by the prevailing economy. Hoping to stick to a semi-continuous footpath around the coastline, he encounters fully clothed sunbathers and a woman who unexpectedly appears nude in his room whilst he is sleeping. Staying at down-at-heel boarding houses (three-quarters empty) he smells the bacon and beer while being treated by proprietors with a mixture of shyness and suspicion.
There are some memorable passages with the English sitting in cars and staring out to sea and an amusing scene where a thoughtless resident puts his smelly foot on Theroux's arm in the TV room.
In the background is the Falklands War with gloating headlines from the Sun newspaper announcing the sinking of the Belgrano: the Lucketts are off to wave plastic Union Jacks at a departing troopship where everyone says 'this Falklands business' instead of 'the war'.
Theroux meets skinheads, broken cliff paths, army firing ranges, nuclear power stations, the painter John Bratby, 'shallies' (beach huts for bathers) and a schoolboy who wants to change his 'ole fice'. In Butlins which 'had the feel of a concentration camp' and had 'a Jonestown image that combines the security and equality of prison with the vulgarity of an amusement park', Theroux watches the unemployed on holiday. There is bingo in the Regency Building and he later eats rook pie.
The title of the book is taken from the opening lines of the poem Annabel Lee
Annabel Lee
"Annabel Lee" is the last complete poem composed by American author Edgar Allan Poe. Like many of Poe's poems, it explores the theme of the death of a beautiful woman. The narrator, who fell in love with Annabel Lee when they were young, has a love for her so strong that even angels are jealous. He...
by Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
: 'It was many and many a year ago/ In a kingdom by the sea,/ That a maiden there lived whom you may know/ By the name of Annabel Lee.'
Contents of book
- The 11.33 to MargateMargate-Demography:As of the 2001 UK census, Margate had a population of 40,386.The ethnicity of the town was 97.1% white, 1.0% mixed race, 0.5% black, 0.8% Asian, 0.6% Chinese or other ethnicity....
- An Evening Train to DealDeal, KentDeal is a town in Kent England. It lies on the English Channel eight miles north-east of Dover and eight miles south of Ramsgate. It is a former fishing, mining and garrison town...
- The Branch Line to HastingsHastingsHastings is a town and borough in the county of East Sussex on the south coast of England. The town is located east of the county town of Lewes and south east of London, and has an estimated population of 86,900....
- The 18.11 to Bognor RegisBognor RegisBognor Regis is a seaside resort town and civil parish in the Arun district of West Sussex, on the south coast of England. It is south-south-west of London, west of Brighton, and south-east of the city of Chichester. Other nearby towns include Littlehampton east-north-east and Selsey to the...
- A Morning Train to the Isle of WightIsle of WightThe Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...
- The Inter-City 125 to PlymouthPlymouthPlymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...
- The Cornish ExplorerCornwallCornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
- The Branch Line to BarnstapleBarnstapleBarnstaple is a town and civil parish in the local government district of North Devon in the county of Devon, England, UK. It lies west southwest of Bristol, north of Plymouth and northwest of the county town of Exeter. The old spelling Barnstable is now obsolete.It is the main town of the...
- The West Somerset RailwayWest Somerset RailwayThe West Somerset Railway is a railway line that originally linked and in Somerset, England.It opened in 1862 and was extended from Watchet to by the Minehead Railway in 1874. Although just a single track, improvements were needed in the first half of the twentieth century to accommodate the...
- The 16.28 to TenbyTenbyTenby is a walled seaside town in Pembrokeshire, South West Wales, lying on Carmarthen Bay.Notable features of Tenby include of sandy beaches; the 13th century medieval town walls, including the Five Arches barbican gatehouse ; 15th century St...
- The 10.32 to CricciethCricciethCriccieth is a town and community on Cardigan Bay, in the Eifionydd area of Gwynedd in Wales. The town lies west of Porthmadog, east of Pwllheli and south of Caernarfon. It has a population of 1,826....
- The 20.20 to LlandudnoLlandudnoLlandudno is a seaside resort and town in Conwy County Borough, Wales. In the 2001 UK census it had a population of 20,090 including that of Penrhyn Bay and Penrhynside, which are within the Llandudno Community...
Junction - The 16.01 to SouthportSouthportSouthport is a seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. During the 2001 census Southport was recorded as having a population of 90,336, making it the eleventh most populous settlement in North West England...
- The West CumbriaCumbriaCumbria , is a non-metropolitan county in North West England. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local authority, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumbria's largest settlement and county town is Carlisle. It consists of six districts, and in...
Line - The Boat Train to UlsterUlsterUlster is one of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the north of the island. In ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial...
- The 10.24 to DerryDerryDerry or Londonderry is the second-biggest city in Northern Ireland and the fourth-biggest city on the island of Ireland. The name Derry is an anglicisation of the Irish name Doire or Doire Cholmcille meaning "oak-wood of Colmcille"...
- The 15.53 to BelfastBelfastBelfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...
- The Train to MallaigMallaigMallaig ; is a port in Lochaber, on the west coast of the Highlands of Scotland. The local railway station, Mallaig, is the terminus of the West Highland railway line , completed in 1901, and the town is linked to Fort William by the A830 road – the "Road to the Isles".The village of Mallaig...
- The Flyer to Cape WrathCape WrathCape Wrath is a cape in Sutherland, Highland, in northern Scotland. It is the most northwesterly point on the island of Great Britain. The land between the Kyle of Durness and the lighthouse that is situated right at the tip, is known as the Parph, two hundred and seven square kilometers of...
- The 14.40 to AberdeenAberdeenAberdeen is Scotland's third most populous city, one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas and the United Kingdom's 25th most populous city, with an official population estimate of ....
- The 9.51 to LeucharsLeucharsLeuchars is a small town near the north-east coast of Fife in Scotland.The town is nearly to the north of the village of Guardbridge, which lies on the north bank of the River Eden where it widens to the Edenmouth estuary before joining the North Sea at St Andrews Bay. Leuchars is north-east of...
Junction - The Last Train to WhitbyWhitbyWhitby is a seaside town, port and civil parish in the Scarborough borough of North Yorkshire, England. Situated on the east coast of Yorkshire at the mouth of the River Esk, Whitby has a combined maritime, mineral and tourist heritage, and is home to the ruins of Whitby Abbey where Caedmon, the...
- Disused Railway Line
- The North NorfolkNorfolkNorfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...
Railway - Striking Southend