The English Channel is the busiest waterway in the world. This narrow sea has been crucial in our history and to our development as a nation, and has helped define our sense of ourselves as an island people. It is also our nearest, dearest seaside playground, where we have sought sun, sin and bracing breezes. In Channel Shore, Tom Fort takes us on a fascinating journey east to west along that edge between land and sea, to find out what this 330-mile stretch of coast means to us. He is startled by the weirdness of Dungeness, takes the air in Hastings, dips a net for prawns near Brighton, wonders at the eccentricities of Swanage and Budleigh Salterton, scoffs a cream tea in Teignmouth, discusses fish in Mevagissey and philosophers in Penwith. On his way way, he uncovers stories of samphire gatherers and whelk fishermen, of sea monsters and mermaids, of sharks and serpentine. In an account full of delight and surprise, he lingers and inquires and accosts anyone he meets, and comes to an understanding of what makes this channel shore so special to us.