LoveReading Says
We’ve long loved Natasha Carthew’s extraordinary writing, and her Undercurrent memoir cannot be more highly recommended. Raw, honest, and written in the mesmerising language of nature, it delivers exactly what its subtitle promises — A Cornish Memoir of Nature, Poverty and Resistance.
Carthew’s writing rages like the ocean as it voices the brutal realities of rural poverty. It also swells with love for her mother, Cornwall and being Celtic, alongside extolling the transformative power of writing. As such, this is a book for people who love nature, and for those fascinated by the emancipatory power of creativity. It’s also a book for those who want to understand contemporary Britain and social inequity from a rural working-class perspective. In short, it’s a gloriously stirring memoir that bangs a loud drum for neglected rural working-class communities.
“You’ve got to get over the unfairness of it, because it is unfair: absolutely nobody fucking cares about poor country folk — they don’t care about you, your background, or your lack of prospects”. To some extent, this excerpt cuts to the core of Undercurrent, in which the author shares her experience of growing up poor in a Cornish village that displayed “a juxtaposition of old and new, rich and poor, of pretty fisherman’s cottages that line the coastal street, and the bullying millionaire houses that dominate the high north and easterly hills”.
With such social inequities playing out around her, Carthew grew up with a violent father. But, “If my father was the incoming storm, my mother’s love was a deep, comforting wheel of warm water”, “an undercurrent of calm, beautiful, familiar tidal water”. The person who told her, “You’re a clever girl, Natasha. Gonna be a writer someday”. Alongside sharing personal coming of age stories, including summers of love, homophobia, and finding salvation in “words that would help lift me above the undercurrent”, Carthew relates alarming facts about the realities of contemporary rural life — food and fuel poverty. Low wages and the disproportionately high cost of living. The debilitating effects of tourism and second home-owners. The fact that “rurality and isolation are used as weapons by abusers”.
Swelling with nature, creativity and magnificent resilience, Undercurrent is remarkably resonant. For more inspiration from Natasha Carthew, read our interview.
Joanne Owen
Find This Book In
Natasha Carthew Press Reviews
A powerful story of social inequality told with the depth of voice that only comes from a writer passionately rooted in place. Like the Cornish tides that fill her life, Carthew is at times roaring, visceral and exclusive, in turn gentle, embracing and inclusive, but always driven by hope and determination. - Raynor Winn
Haunting and powerful, a book about the sea and the power of belonging, about secrets and words, this is a beautiful and powerful memoir. I read it in one sitting. - Kate Mosse
Raw, rebellious, urgent and hopeful, this is a stunning tale of a life made and saved by nature -- Dr Helen Scales
Natasha Carthew shines the light on another side of Cornwall, one far from the world of bright Instagram pictures and celebrity travel shows. She reveals a place of poverty, dead-end jobs and little hope. But she writes so passionately about a world she knows well and her humanity and sense of humour shine though on every page, ensuring that the often dark subject matter fuels a rich, rewarding read -- Petroc Trelawny
Luscious layers of poetic prose that fluidly lead us through the landscapes and seascapes of Cornwall, recounting stories of poverty and often tough childhood struggles. Stories told by one who knew that they needed and wanted so much more for their life, but one for whom the seascape of Cornwall is still the hypnotic textural lens. This book is a beautiful, sometimes difficult, elegy to our innermost hopes, fears and dreams. Gorgeously and generously written -- Juno Roche
A book like a beacon, blazing with love and anger for how it is to grow up poor and full of serious ambition in a place others use as a playground. Carthew's unbreakable commitment to making art from the outside edge of social provision is a rallying call to all of us who grew up pushed to the margins. This is a fierce, inspiring story -- Tanya Shadrick
Poetic, political and powerful, Natasha Carthew weaves lyrical and sensual nature writing with the tough realities of growing up in poverty -- Chloe Timms
A compelling counterbalance to the conventional Cornish story, Undercurrent takes the reader into a side of Cornwall that is rarely presented to the outside world. Natasha Carthew, in scintillating prose, recounts her childhood by the sea, in a place full of dazzling natural beauty, but with a dark side of poverty, inequality and lack of opportunity. Her moving story of finding a way to become a writer is both a testament to her strength, and a passionate call for social justice for disadvantaged rural communities -- Sophie Pierce
Railing against the brutal unfairness of accepting the life she seems condemned to lead, Natasha weaves an exhilarating story of escaping the dangerous undercurrents of her life and becoming the writer she was always meant to be. I was with her until the end -- Linda Gask
Carthew shows us Cornwall as it often lived but rarely seen, where the rich holiday and others struggle to survive. It's a tale of two counties with the ever-changing sea as a constant. It is a story of queer resistance, of community and of finding your own voice -- Damian Barr
By turns marvellous, moving, & mesmerising - Anita Sethi
A fierce, urgent memoir by one of our most important writers. Natasha Carthew is a warrior you'd want on your side in almost any battle, but more important, she is a torchbearer. If you want to understand life in rural Britain, look where she casts her light. - Amy-Jane Beer
This important and beautifully lyrical book asks questions about identity, belonging and the ability of words to transform a life - The Times
A simmering dissection of rural poverty -- Luke Turner
Beautiful and lyrical, Undercurrent explores the world of rural poverty with both striking honesty and heart. There is no other writer like Carthew - Mahsuda Snaith
Praise for Natasha Carthew: A beautiful piece of writing, such a testament to the generations of strong women who have inhabited this coast and told in a poetic Cornish accent so evocative of time and place -- Raynor Winn
A real thing of beauty. The innovative structure and striking illustrations combine to create a verbal and visual feast. The reader feels like they are down in the darkness of mine and eavesdropping on the past -- Cathy Rentzenbrink
Carthew is an elegantly lyrical writer - Independent
Gripping stuff, Carthew's prose has a startling ferocity - Telegraph
Carthew's writing is breath-takingly fierce, smart and tender - Times Educational Supplement
Natasha writes with a vivid, imagistic language - FInancial Times
Carthew's is a different voice: sinewy and inventive -- Patrick Gale -
