Sasha Swire

Edgeland, Little, Brown - September 2023 

From the bestselling author of Diary of an MP’s Wife comes a beautiful discovery of Britain’s great coastal path

In Edgeland, the political diarist Sasha Swire escapes the confines of Westminster to walk the northern stretch of the South West Coast Path. Starting at Minehead in Somerset, she follows the well-trodden path to Land’s End in Cornwall, walking it in sections over a decade-long period, returning each year like a migratory bird.

The result is an immersive, beguiling and literary exploration of one of the most enigmatic, beautiful and popular coastlines on earth. It is also a contemplative and very personal response to a story about our English shore from pre-Celtic times to the present day; of the upheaval of rocks; of astonishing botany; of pilgrimage and customs; of the exploitation of resources and of dangers to come.

Swire identifies how important edges are to us as she walks, not only in how we see our world but in our attitude to it. She observes that the outside limits, the borders, the line where two surfaces of a solid meet actively, encourage not only flora and fauna but people to gather, create, generate resistance and build new ways of living and working.

She discovers that the path is not only a walk through Britain’s windswept and wave-battered western fringes but a tale about how we and nature have, through extraordinary resilience and relentless spirit, learnt to tame the various forces that are stacked against us. That we live at the edge of the possible.

Diary of an MP's Wife: Inside and Outside Power published by Little, Brown in September 2020 

What is it like to be a wife of a politician in modern-day Britain? Sasha Swire finally lifts the lid. For over two decades she has kept a secret diary detailing the trials and tribulations of being a political plus-one; the travel, the security, the challenges to family life and the unpredictable events. A professional partner as well as a life partner and one with strong political opinions herself, she detonates the image of the dutiful stereotype.

Swire gives us a ringside seat through the great political events of the decade, from the election of David Cameron and the forming of a coalition, three general elections, to the referendum and the turmoil of Brexit. She speaks candidly about the key players, at work and in repose. She sheds light on the 'snake and ladder' nature of political careers, on the scandals, on the friendships and the fallouts, the juggling of office and home life, the media scrutiny and the handling of political opponents. It is a searingly honest, wildly indiscreet and often humorous account of what life is like inside the Westminster hot house.