Strangers on the Shore

by Michael Smith

In Strangers on the Shore, Michael Smith - author of cult classic The Giro Playboy, which captured the arty demi-monde of Shoreditch gentrifying into a hipster hellscape - stays one step ahead of the property developers as he stumbles through the uncanny psychic landscape of Hastings, in an astonishing work of autofiction that explores the experience of becoming a father and the disarming grief of leaving your youth and its dreams behind.

The flâneuring Michael at the centre of the book has moved down to the 'dogshit capital of the South Coast,' started a family and opened a bar. He finds himself pouring wine in a 'drinking town with a fishing problem,' philosophising, procrastinating, morbidly obsessed with Aleister Crowley, who died in poverty in a BnB in this shabby seaside resort full of artistes and occult morris dancers.

A book about what it is like to live on the margins, sliding into a precarious middle age in turbulent times, both giving up and starting a-new, Strangers on the Shore is deeply and unashamedly romantic, whilst also angry about the dystopian Britain we've sleepwalked into. Revered by Andrew Weatherall as 'the acid house Montaigne' and The Idler as 'Rimbauld on the dole,' Michael Smith has written an endlessly moving book of transcendent beauty about fathers and songs and the pleasures of an introspective life.

Genres: Fiction

401 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 28, 2026

About the author

Librarian Note: There are more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Vitória · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author has been labeled as “the acid house Montaigne” — bro, you wish. The whole thing just reads completely disconnected and at no point did I have any idea where he was going with this, choosing instead just to string together a bunch of preposterous observations that try so hard to be clever and to prove he's better than the working class folks around him... spoiler alert: he's not.

[Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was conflicted with this book. It’s a collection of essays really- which is an enjoyable and bingeable pace - at times Michael comes across as dreamy, and artistic and tortured, with touching moments and at other times he comes across as a terrible snob - looking down his nose at ‘cul de sac people’ these moments made me dislike him and there were a lot of them because he lives in Hastings - even though I could relate, it made me feel uncomfortable.

Would have benefited from a good edit if I’m honest - but if you enjoy the ramblings of a man’s mind life crisis - this is the book for you - and he shares some great cultural insights along the way.

[Nick Cubs · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve read some amazing books this year, but nothing matches this. If you enjoyed The Giro Playboy or Unreal City, this won’t disappoint. An auto fiction / memoir that tells of Smith’s move to the south coast. Funny, wise, moving. The writing is immaculate. Oh and I’ve learnt a bit about quantum physics, too.