COASTLINES : THE STORY OF OUR SHORE . by Patrick Barkham . ( Granta Books £20 ) We are an island race , — which means , in practice , we are a coastal people . No one in Britain lives as much as 70 miles from the sea . Our coastline of 10,800 miles is longer than India ’ s ( Unbelievable ? Try measuring the ins and outs of Scotland ’ s ) . Many people in the U.S. , Russia or China never see the sea in their lives . But most of us are saturated with it in childhood — in holiday homes and beach huts with deckchairs and sandy sandwiches , shivering and occasionally baking in the capricious arms of the sea . People are drawn back to the sea in their retirement , staring once more and feeling as they did as children . Our attachment to the coast is strong . Popular television series explore it , gliding over the cliffs by helicopter as if in a dream . Coastal paths are never short of walkers . Barkham ’ s book is written to celebrate 50 years of Enterprise Neptune , the National Trust ’ s campaign to save our coastal beauties from being spoiled — by purchasing them . Beginning in 1965 , the Trust has by now acquired 742 miles of coast . Our attachment to the coast is strong . Popular television series explore it , gliding over the cliffs by helicopter as if in a dream and coastal paths are never short of walkers . Naturally , the National Trust mainly bought up the wilder shores to preserve their wildness , which is why you won ’ t find any popular resorts among them . This suits Barkham ’ s taste , because his childhood holidays were partly spent on Scolt Head Island , off the emptiest part of the Norfolk coast — an island with only one hut , where his parents chose to stay . He goes back to stay on Scolt alone , evoking not only its emptiness , but also its dreamy union of sea and land — good for meditation for a night or two , though not for a fortnight ’ s holiday . He also waxes fondly on the loneliness of beaches and headlands . He even has a love affair with Orford Ness , Suffolk , a radar spying station kept top-secret and out of bounds by the Ministry of Defence for 80 years . He likes the spookiness of its decaying laboratories , toxic testing sites and the tales that were told about the secret base called Cobra Mist , which was rumoured to have housed the UFO that supposedly landed in nearby Rendlesham Forest in 1980 . But who would want to visit the Ness now we can , heaven alone knows . Barkham sails keenly for two of the inhabited islands off the coast . Lindisfarne and its attendant islands were places of monkish contemplation for Saints Aidan and Cuthbert . Lundy , with a permanent population of 28 get-away-from-it enthusiasts , in summertime adds 60,000 visitors , who come to see the puffins . He loves the cliffs and chasms off Cornwall . Walking the tops of them is , he says , ‘ the next best thing to flying ’ . When I was young , we stared with fascination at another mysterious island because no one was allowed to land on it . Brownsea Island , in Poole Harbour , had belonged since the 1920s to the eccentric Mrs Christie . For 40 years , she kept all human beings out ( with an armed guard ) , while allowing only animals running wild to share it with her . When she died , in 1961 , the Trust was given the island by the Treasury in lieu of death duties . It took nearly 50 years to clear the wild rhododendron that had overrun it . Now , it is partly open as a nature reserve , but it lacks its old mystery now it ’ s no longer surrounded by notices , saying : ‘ Keep Out ! ’ Barkham has provided a tempting introduction to many little-known stretches of our coastline , with helpful instructions on how to get to them ( although they do not include places to stay ) . He is the right man to salute the preservation of our coast : the National Trust ’ s miles are the only part we actually have the right to stand on as common land . The rest of the waterline belongs to the Crown Estate . As a true coast-lover , Barkham once proposed to a girlfriend by drawing the invitation in the sand and taking her up a dune to read it . She said : ‘ Yes ’ .
As an island race , no one in Britain lives more than 70 miles from the sea . Enterprise Neptune is the National Trust 's campaign to save the coastline . Since starting in 40 years the Trust has acquired 742 miles of the British coast .