Gareth E Rees describes himself on X/Twitter as an “author of weird stories & books”. Among the books is Unofficial Britain, which was long-listed for the Ondaatje Prize of the Royal Society of Literature and recommended by The Sunday Times as one of the best travel books of 2020. In his latest book, Sunken Lands (Elliott & Thompson, March 21), he journeys through drowned forests, vanished villages and sinking cities, everywhere from the English Channel to New Orleans. He “peels back the layers of silt, sea and mythology to reveal what our submerged past can tell us about our imminent future as rising sea levels transform our planet once more”.