Doggerland

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Around 6,000 years ago, the Mesolithic people were forced onto higher ground, including in what is today Britain and the Netherlands. Doggerland is the name given in the 1990s to an area of land, now submerged beneath the North Sea, which connected Great Britain to Continental Europe. Ben Smith's writing is incredibly precise; working with a restricted palette of steel greys and flaking blues, he paints the boundaried seascape with vivid detail. The boy has been sent by the Company to take his place, but the question of where he went and why is one for which the Old Man will give no answer.

Doggerland by Ben Smith | Goodreads Doggerland by Ben Smith | Goodreads

The cast – two grizzled and taciturn maintenance men, one older (“the old man”) and one not so old (“the boy”, though he’s not actually a boy). This is a story about men and fathers, the faint consolation of routine, and the undying hope of finding out what lies beyond the horizon. I received an ARC of this book courtesy of NetGalley and HarperCollins UK/ 4th Estate in exchange for an honest review. This is more of a thought-provoking and emotional piece about family and commitment, and what different people will do to escape from or face up to their responsibilities. Two people – The Old Man (Griel) and The Boy (Jem) ( “Of course, the boy was not really a boy, any more than the old man was all that old; but names are relative, and out in the grey some kind of distinction was necessary.Ben Smith paints such a stunningly vivid portrait of this very narrow setting that I could almost smell the metallic, industrial tang of the rig. A scientific exploration of the advanced ancient civilization known as Doggerland or Fairland that disappeared 5,000 years ago. This book is set in what appears to be a near-future world, where (possibly due to climate change) society has undergone some kind of breakdown.

Doggerland: The History of the Land that Once Connected Great Britain Doggerland: The History of the Land that Once Connected Great

The idea of a submerged world resonates with mythical and poetic associations and, as a result, “Doggerland” lends itself well as the title of Ben Smith’s debut novel. It is a hard life of boredom and constraint, a job unremitting in its demands, but beneath it there is a seam of intrigue. Here, time erodes at a gruelling pace as they surrender to the predictability of one another’s company. It is a beautiful, fully realised piece of writing and one of many high points in a novel of poise, depth and surprising narrative propulsion.

Every now and again they are visited by the pilot who brings tinned food for them and hopes to trade things. The scene in which the young man finds a pristine conference room at the top of a 150 ft turbine particularly stands out in this respect. At times, Doggerland reminded me of Megan Hunter’s The End We Start From, which also describes a future marked by rising water levels. For The Old Man it is the distant past – he dredges the sea to extract prehistoric artefacts from the eponymous land mass long ago submerged under the North Sea ( https://en. In the first few chapters, I kept highlighting passages and making a note that said “cinematic”: Smith’s writing draws vivid images in your mind and it is hard not to see some passages as clips from a movie.