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The Drowned Places
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  • Published: 11 April 2027
  • ISBN: 9781529967104
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 288
  • RRP: $37.99
Categories:

The Drowned Places

Diving in Search of Atlantis

Formats & editions
Paperback
11 Apr 2027
Hardback
17 May 2025
EBook
17 Apr 2025
Audiobook
17 Apr 2025
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From Ancient Greece to Port Royal, Damian Le Bas embarks on a cultural exploration of diving, investigating sunken human ruins around the world and the marine life that thrives there now

‘Compelling… his curiosity brings the ancient myths and stark realities of the ocean vividly to life’ SOPHIE ELMHIRST

From ancient myths to sunken cities and natural wonders, join Damian Le Bas as he dives in search of the world's greatest mysteries.

As a young boy, Damian was captivated by the story of the lost city of Atlantis. As an adult, he dreams of diving to discover its ruins. After the death of his father, torn between his lifelong desire and the taboo his Romany culture places on the ocean, he comes by chance across a dive shop. He can’t help but go in.

As he masters the skills of this exhilarating sport, Damian dives with seals in the Farne Islands, explores submerged Roman ruins in Naples and descends into the sunken city of Port Royal in Jamaica. Under the waves, he enters a breathtaking world and is entranced by sunken wonders both man-made and natural.

'One of the best books on diving that I have ever read’ LITERARY REVIEW
‘A fine, vivid writer’ SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
'Literary and learned. It goes deep' AMY LIPTROT
'The most compelling and evocative of underwater odysseys' KATE HUMBLE
‘Beautifully written and endlessly fascinating’ DAVID GIBBINS
  • Published: 11 April 2027
  • ISBN: 9781529967104
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 288
  • RRP: $37.99
Categories:

About the author

Damian Le Bas

Damian Le Bas is a writer, film-maker and visual artist. His first book, The Stopping Places, won a Somerset Maugham Award, a Royal Society of Literature Jerwood Award and was shortlisted for the Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year. Besides getting in the sea, he loves music, reading and spending time in the woods and hills with his family and friends. Damian studied Theology at Oxford University and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. The Drowned Places is his second book.
portrait photo of Damian Le Bas

Also by Damian Le Bas

The Stopping Places
See all

Praise for The Drowned Places

An enthralling exploration of the liminal by one of the most exciting writers around. A breathtakingly good book

TRISTAN GOOLEY, author of How to Read a Tree

The most captivating book on diving that I have ever read. But it is not about diving as a sport; it is about diving as an accessway to submerged landscapes, the festival of life that inhabits them and, above all, the drowned ruins of lost civilisations

MENSUN BOUND, author of The Ship Beneath the Ice

I loved this book - a wonderful interweaving of diving and exploration with coming to terms with grief, beautifully written and endlessly fascinating. One of the best books that I have read in a long time

DAVID GIBBINS, author of A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks

Le Bas goes on a compelling dual journey in this book, both historical and personal. His curiosity brings the ancient myths and stark realities of the ocean vividly to life. A various, rich exploration

SOPHIE ELMHIRST, author of Maurice and Maralyn

Loss, risk, adventure and redemption. Le Bas has written the most compelling and evocative of underwater odysseys

KATE HUMBLE, author of A Year of Living Simply

A powerful and superbly profound book where myth and history meet personal journey through the prism of diving

ROB COWEN, author of Common Ground

A very good book. THE book about diving I couldn’t find a few years ago: giving both the technicalities and the wonder

AMY LIPTROT

Beautifully written…The Drowned Places is one of the best books on diving that I have ever read

Literary Review

Le Bas is a fine, vivid writer and his diving adventures are immersively told. I’ve read few better descriptions of the contradictions of the sport, its wonder and its terror, its grace and its absurdity

Sunday Telegraph

Le Bas is a fine, vivid writer… I've read few better descriptions of the contradictions of the sport, its wonder and its terror, its grace and its absurdity

Alex Diggins, Sunday Telegraph

[Le Bas] writes well about grief, finding rich metaphors in each submarine landscape

Guy Stagg, Spectator

It's the best book I have ever read about the experience and subjectivity of diving - whilst reading it I kept thinking, "I've felt that before, but I've never said it in words"

SIR TONY ROBINSON

Beautiful and thought provoking

Tom Lathan, TLS