The book includes a short biography and listing of primary works for the authors covered, and appendices offer suggested fiction utilizing the two settings, and critical nonfiction covering the genre.

This book examines the ways in which 21 modern and postmodern writers (from Tennyson to Ted Hughes, from Jane Austen to Jane Gardam) have made use of the physical environment of riverbank and seashore in their work.

Understanding Alan Sillitoe offers a lucid appraisal of the life and works of the well-known contemporary British writer hailed by critics as the literary descendent of D.H. Lawrence.

Paired writers examined include: Carson McCullers and Susan Hill; Walker Percy and Alan Sillitoe; Flannery O'Connor and Beryl Bainbridge; Ann Tyler and Anthony Burgess; Elizabeth Spencer and Melvyn Bragg; Wendell Berry and Jane Gardam; ...