Born by the sea and enchanted from a young age by the idea of underwater voyages, Damian was warned off them by relatives—Gypsies, travellers of the land who feared the power of the ocean.

Then he married into a family of divers. They’d seen things that sounded fantastical. Vertigo-inducing tunnels of blackness. Huge sea-creatures. Walls of eels, and ghostly wrecks.

Most haunting of all were the drowned places: ruins where humans had once lived, now entombed in the weight of water and home to the life of the sea. Under threat of rising seas, more places face this fate. Do their mysterious predecessors have anything to teach us?

Praise for The Drowned Places:

‘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

‘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

‘Loss, risk, adventure & redemption.  Le Bas has written the most compelling and evocative of underwater odysseys.’ -Kate Humble

‘I’ve just finished this very good book. The book about diving I couldn’t find a few years ago, giving both the technicalities and the wonder.’ -Amy Liptrot

‘A powerful and superbly profound book where myth and history meet personal journey through the prism of diving. Le Bas is a fantastic writer and this book an intense and unforgettable journey underwater, into the places where memory surfaces and the past becomes proximate.’ -Rob Cowen, author of Common Ground

‘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, Telegraph journalist

Find The Drowned Places at Amazon.