The Romney Marsh / Dungeness Foreland depositional complex comprises an extensive tract of marshland and associated sand and gravel barrier deposits, located in the eastern English Channel. This monograph presents the results of a programme of palaeoenvironmental investigation aimed at improving our understanding of this internationally-significant coastal landform. The focus is on the evidence for landscape change during the late Holocene, from c. 3000 BC onwards, and on identifying the local, regional and global driving mechanisms responsible for the changes observed. The research details the results from two related projects, each funded as part of English Heritage's Aggregate Levy Sustainability Fund scheme. The first project concerns the late Holocene evolution of the port of Rye, located in the southeast part of the complex, and the second the depositional history of the gravel foreland. Topics explored include the vegetation and land-use history of the study area, methodological issues relating to the collection and interpretation of radiocarbon dates from coastal lowlands, the role of compaction in influencing landscape and sea-level change, and the effects of medieval storms on coastal flooding and landscape change. This monograph is intended for students and researchers interested in Holocene coastal evolution and sea-level change, coastal vegetation history and land-use history, and the development of new techniques for reconstructing past environmental change in coastal lowlands.

An "excellent," darkly-told crime novel in the tradition of Tana French and Ian Rankin (Wall Street Journal). Sergeant Alexandra Cupidi is a recent transfer from the London metro police to the rugged Kentish countryside. She's done little to ingratiate herself with her new colleagues, who find her too brash, urban, and -- to make matters worse -- she investigated her first partner, a veteran detective, and had him arrested on murder charges. Now assigned the brash young Constable Jill Ferriter to look after, she's facing another bizarre case: a woman found floating in local marsh land, dead of no apparent cause. The case gets even stranger when the detectives contact the victim's next of kin, her son, a high-powered graphic designer living in London. Adopted at the age of two, he'd never known his mother, he tells the detectives, until a homeless womanknocked on his door, claiming to be his mother, just the night before: at the same time her body was being dredged from the water. Juggling the case, her aging mother, her teenage daughter, and the loneliness of country life, Detective Cupidi must discover who the woman really was, who killed her, and how she managed to reconnect with her long lost son, apparently from beyond the grave.

Niko's enthusiastic pursuit of folklore, myths, and all the things that help to make the Universe the amazing place that it is, melded with the evocative images of Andy Holyer, brings to life the legend and lore of Romney Marsh. Niko lives in Kent with his wife Rachel and sons Robert and Jonathan. His career has spanned from being a leading designer of microchips to being a purveyor of fish and chips. His hobbies include megalithic engineering (building full size stone circles), chainsaw carving, silversmithing and mushrooms. Andy was born in Lydd and, following a protracted sojourn in Yorkshire, returned to live in the town with partner Jenny and an unquenchable obsession with local history. His vibrant and colourful paintings cast a unique and uncompromising light on the history and culture of Romney Marsh. Together, Andy and Niko have produced a book that reflects the character of the Marsh itself - whimsical, provoking; a place of wide open skies and dark secrets; where light and colour can as soon give way to impenetrable mist and shade. What more likely guides to lead us on a journey through the mysteries and magic of the 'sixth continent'?

The year is 1287 and yet another storm has hit the Kent coast. The town of Romney is under threat and its people battle to save their homes and livelihoods. A travelling monk, whose quest is to record the lives of people living in coastal towns, sets out to watch the storm from the church tower. From his vantage point, the monk believes he can see all that happens in Romney that night. But as the storm ravages the town and its fortunes are changed forever, what didn't the monk see?

Romney Marsh lies at the frontier between land and sea. It consists entirely of land gained from the sea, and being below the level of high tides, has always been threatened by flooding. Four ports now stranded miles from the sea and another lost to the sea bear witness to great changes in the coastline. The book charts the history of human occupation of a very specialized and difficult environment over the last 2000 years. Advances were made when both environmental and economic conditions were favorable. But when difficulties became insuperable, especially in Roman times and again in the 13th century, the inhabitants retreated. The struggle for survival continues, and the book concludes with the challenges facing the 21st century.

As the nineteenth century draws to a close, Alice arrives at Dungeness to become school teacher at the local school. She is expecting a seaside village with a promenade, sandy beaches and, at the very least, pavements. Instead, she finds herself on a desolate, windswept, shingle headland unlike any place she has ever been. All too soon, she stumbles upon a dying woman and is haunted by her inability to help her. Not knowing who to trust and trapped within the inhospitable landscape, Alice is determined to find out who the woman was and what had happened to her

Police Sergeant William South has a good reason to shy away from murder investigations: he is a murderer himself. A methodical, diligent, and exceptionally bright detective, South is an avid birdwatcher and trusted figure in his small town on the rugged Kentish coast. He also lives with the deeply buried secret that, as a child in Northern Ireland, he may have killed a man. When a fellow birdwatcher is found murdered in his remote home, South's world flips. The culprit seems to be a drifter from South's childhood; the victim was the only person connecting South to his early crime; and a troubled, vivacious new female sergeant has been relocated from London and assigned to work with South. As our hero investigates, he must work ever-harder to keep his own connections to the victim, and his past, a secret. The Birdwatcher is British crime fiction at its finest; a stirring portrait of flawed, vulnerable investigators; a meticulously constructed mystery; and a primal story of fear, loyalty and vengeance. **Longlisted for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year

Derek Jarmans Garden is the last book Jarman ever wrote. It is a fitting memorial to a brilliant and greatly loved artist and film maker who, against all odds, made a breathtaking garden in the most inhospitable of places the flat, bleak, often desolate expanse of shingle overlooked by the Dungeness nuclear power station. Here is Jarmans own record of how the garden evolved, from its earliest beginnings in 1986 to the last year of his life. More than 150 photographs by his friend Howard Sooley capture the garden at all its different stages and at every season of the year, revealing its complex geometrical plan, magical stone circles and the beautiful and bizarre scupltures. We also catch glimpses of Jarman at work on the garden. This beautiful book will appeal to all those who love gardens and gardening, as well as the legions of admirers of this extraordinary man.

In this collection of essays Nicholas Brooks explores some of the earliest and most problematic sources, both written and archaeological, for early English history. In his hands, the structure and functions of Anglo-Saxon origin stories and charters (whether authentic or forged) illuminate English political and social structures, as well as ecclesiastical, urban and rural landscapes. Together with already published essays, this work includes an account of the developments in the study of Anglo-Saxon charters over the last 20 years.