"Conceptualising the beach as a creative trope and as a socio-cultural site, this collection examines its multiplicity of meanings and functions as a natural environment engendering both desire and fear in the human imagination from the Victorian period to the present. The contributors examine literature, film and art, as well moments of encounter and environmental crisis, highlighting the beach as a social space and vacationscape, as a geographical frontier between land and water, and as an historical site of contact and conflict" --