The Perimeter

What an incredibly beautiful book, it captured my heart and took me to places I know well, reacquainted me with those I haven't visited for a while and fired my determination to visit many others. Armchair travel at its very best. This book is exactly what our stunning and varied coastline deserves

Lara Maiklem, author of MUDLARKING

Since the days of William Daniell, the idea of making a grand circuit of the British coast has tantalized those hardy enough to attempt it. Quintin Lake's photographic journey, accompanied by his candid narrative, is a worthy new entry in that tradition. There's plenty of landscape here, to be sure, and some panoramas that Daniell himself would have been proud to call his own. But Lake's eye takes in everything: the industrial, the recreational, the urban, the rural. Some of his images could be serious contenders for "comedy wildlife photo of the year award," yet also admirers of meditative nature-inspired artists like Andy Goldsworthy will find much to appreciate here. Lake's kaleidoscopic vision never fails to surprise and delight and provoke.

Professor Isaac Land

The Perimeter is astonishing. It deserves to be an instant classic. Icons mixed with granular detail that forced me to re-imagine even the sections of the coast that I know well. On his epic walk, Lake has captured the grandeur of the seaboard, but also the granular detail: from moonlight on the North Sea, neolithic burial cairns and washed-up shipwrecks to ruined, cliff-top castles, empty bandstands and shiny new wind farms. A beautiful, important book: a reminder that, contrary to what we hear in the news, this island remains ‘a precious stone set in a silver sea.

Robert Penn, author of THE MAN WHO MADE THINGS OUT OF TREES

An incredible achievement. Every page twinkles with gems. It’s uplifting and joyful. Adversity is a unique source of courage and vision. The walker’s viewfinder is uniquely calibrated to alight on humour, unlikely juxtapositions and scale at its most cosmic. The aching legs and stormy nights add a creative frisson to the entire, humongous project. With the suffering and exuberance comes enormous depth. They’re not casual snaps from car parks but crafted responses to places most will never see. Storytelling at human scale is slippery and elusive but The Perimeter is packed with geographical tales. It’s an exquisite record of a monumental endeavour and an intimate portrait of an extraordinary coast.

Nicholas Crane