House of tides

the long version

"If White is based geographically in France, he says he really lives in 'a Scottish outpost' on the North coast of Brittany. From this vantagc point, he has produced his latest work, an extraordinary hybrid of intimate autobiography, social commentary, live literary theory, geopoetic fieldwork, oceanic poem, quiet cultural manifesto, all rolled into one." "He tells about life and work in his 'Atlantic studio' and about neighbours, visitors, correspondents. About travelling to other parts of Brittany, towns and islands, where he meets up with the ghosts of Celtic monks and Arctic fishermen, as well as those of bygone writers with whom he feels affinities. We then go on to Ireland where, in the company of a Breton musician, he makes a hilarious trip through Dublin, Cork and Galway. And finally we move from little Brittany to big Brittany (alias Britain). White's journey up through England to Scotland is not only a humorous sociological analysis, it is a heartfelt homecoming, accompanied by the opening up of new intellectual and cultural perspectives. There is a deceptive artlessness here, an effortless voice that conceals a deep, unified purpose. This is dynamic, meditative writing that takes prose to its furthest reaches."--BOOK JACKET.