Confounding Cartography: The Sandscape Diminution of Hayling Island

Cooper, David ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6143-3772 and Green, Michelle (2020) Confounding Cartography: The Sandscape Diminution of Hayling Island. In: Sandscapes: Writing the British Seaside. Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 191-207. ISBN 978-3-030-44779-3

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Abstract

Hayling—located off the south coast of England in the county of Hampshire—is an island thick with stories. Yet, as with so many low-lying islands, it is also in a position of acute vulnerability in this age of climate emergency. Bringing together creative and critical ways of writing, as well as fragments from a heterogeneous range of textual sources, this collaborative chapter is an experiment in the mapping of Hayling as sandscape. Through a braiding of topographical description and autobiographical reflection, literary criticism and flash fiction, the chapter explores the multiple ways Hayling’s sand has been, and continues to be, perceived and experienced. At the same time, the chapter reflects on Hayling’s status as a sandscape of ever-increasing diminution.