96 m. ago The North Road by Rob Cowen review – the poetry and pain of Britain’s backbone

A beautifully written study of our longest numbered route, the A1, is full of rich asides and haunting explorations, conjuring the visual pleasure of a road movieMost people know the North Road of this book’s title as the London-to-Edinburgh A1. But, as Rob Cowen writes, A1 is a cipher for a 400-mile multiplicity of roads – a historically diverse bundle that includes ancient trackways, a Roman road, the “Old North Road” and the “Great North Road” (the name generally applied to what became the A1 in the road-numbering scheme of the 1920s). This collective forms, as Cowen has it, our primary road – the “backbone” of Britain.As a frequent shuttler between north and south, I prefer the North Road to its rival, the bland, homogenous M1. It has verges and laybys, eccentric pit-stops where the coffee is not necessarily Costa, and a scruffy, improvised air, suggesting something organically arisen from the landscape. But whereas I have merely driven along the road, Cowen has communed with it...

Politics

23 h. ago 'I'm haunted by faces of people we abandoned in icy sea after their boat was blown apart'

Royal Marines veteran Alan Jukes, 101 shared his wartime memories of the worst day of his life - having to leave his fellow British seaman to perish during the Atlantic convoys

Politics

2 w. ago Fishermen in idyllic seaside village win battle with second home owners to carry on 'noisy' centuries

Boat skippers in Sea Palling, Norfolk, have received complaints that noise from a yard where they store their boats and equipment is ruining the area's peace and quiet.

Events

2 w. ago Body of Scots fisherman found in Norway four years after vanishing at sea

The body of Joe Masson has been found after he vanished at sea on his creel boat in 2021.

Politics

2 w. ago ‘The boat owners treat us as slaves’: crews report abuse and death on long

The unexplained death of a fisher on a Chinese-owned trawler in the Indian Ocean illustrates the lack of accountability in the seafood industry, say advocatesRicky* was one of the first to see his crewmate’s dead body. It was 2023 and he was six months into a stint at sea, working on a longline tuna boat in the Indian Ocean for $480 a month. The crew were mostly Indonesian, like Ricky, or Chinese, like the captain and owners of the boat.In the days leading up to Ricky’s crewmate’s death, the 29-year-old Indonesian, referred to as YK, had been increasingly depressed onboard, repeatedly asking to be sent home. The captain had refused, says Ricky, who says he saw YK attack the captain. Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago An unexplained death, ‘abuse and slavery’: Indonesian fishers reveal life on long haul vessels

The death of a crew member on a Chinese-owned trawler in the Indian Ocean illustrates the lack of accountability in the seafood industry, say advocatesRicky* was one of the first to see his crewmate’s dead body. It was 2023 and he was six months into a stint at sea, working on a longline tuna boat in the Indian Ocean for $480 a month. The crew were mostly Indonesian, like Ricky, or Chinese, like the captain and owners of the boat.In the days leading up to Ricky’s crewmate’s death, the 29-year-old Indonesian, referred to as YK, had been increasingly depressed onboard, repeatedly asking to be sent home. The captain had refused, says Ricky, who says he saw YK attack the captain. Continue reading...

Events

3 w. ago How Egyptian submarine disaster is the latest tragedy to hit Red Sea tourists following deadly boat fire and shark attack

Thursday's tragic submarine sinking in the Red Sea has so far left six people dead and nine more injured, after the tourist vessel failed off the coast of the Egyptian city of Hurghada. 

Events

3 w. ago How to join the yacht set for less so you can live the luxe life at sea

My husband Phil was brought up sailing, but even so I had reservations about chartering a yacht for just the two of us - yet somehow or other we not only survived... we thrived.

Politics