Why a Booktrail?
1992: Adam Farrer moves to Withernsea….and there are plenty of stories to tell about
Cold Fish Soup
What you need to know before your trail
Before Adam Farrer’s family relocated to Withernsea in 1992, he’d never heard of the Holderness coast. The move represented one thing to Adam: a chance to leave the insecurities of early adolescence behind. And he could do that anywhere. What he didn’t know was how much he’d grow to love the quirks and people of this faded Yorkshire resort, in spite of its dilapidated attractions and retreating clifftops.
While Adam documents the minutiae of small-town life, he lays bare experiences that are universal. His insights on family, friendship, male mental health and suicide are revealed in stories of reinvention, rapacious seagulls, interdimensional werewolves, burlesque dancing pensioners, and his compulsion towards the sea.
Locations
Reset- England - Yorkshire - Withernsea
- A: Central Promenade
- B: Golden Sands Holiday Park
- C: Pier Towers
- D: Withernsea Lighthouse Museum
- E: RAF Holmpton - the bunker
- F: Ellis’ Café
- England - Yorkshire - Scarborough
- G: Holbeck Hall Hotel
- H: Hull - Humber Dock Marina
- I: RSPB Bempton Cliffs
Travel Guide
Travel to Cold Fish Soup locations with Adam Ferrer
Cold Fish Soup is a memoir told across a series of essays about life on the crumbling East Yorkshire coast. It has a particular focus on the small resort town of Withernsea, where I spent my teens and early twenties, and where my family all still live.
There are a LOT of lost towns along this coastline, and reading about them was my initial inspiration for writing Cold Fish Soup. Still, if you’re quick, there are plenty of locations from the book that you can visit for as long as they survive the rigours of the North Sea.
Pier Towers, the lighthouse and Bempton Cliffs are three particular locations which appear in the essays and these appear on the map.
In the final essay in the collection, The Museum of Withernsea, I visit Ellis’ Café just a stone’s throw from Withernsea beach. There is a photo in the gallery and look for Adam on the wall!
BookTrail Boarding Pass:
Destination: Withernsea Author/guide: Adam Farrer Departure Time: 1992
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