Strands: A Year of Disccoveries on the Beach by Jean Sprackland

[chesilbeach]

Synopsis: (from amazon.co.uk)

Strands describes a year's worth of walking on the ultimate beach: inter-tidal and constantly turning up revelations: mermaid's purses, lugworms, sea potatoes, messages in bottles, buried cars, beached whales and a perfect cup from a Cunard liner.

 

This is a series of meditations prompted by walking on the wild estuarial beaches of Ainsdale Sands between Blackpool and Liverpool, Strands is about what is lost and buried then discovered, about all the things you find on a beach, dead or alive, about flotsam and jetsam, about mutability and transformation - about sea-change.

 

Review:

I bought this last year while on holiday at the lovely independent bookshop, the Falmouth Bookseller, as it seemed a very appropriate book for a Cornish holiday.  Like the idiot I occasionally am, I didn't read it at the time, and then put it on the TBR shelf to languish, forgotten and ignored, until this weekend it jumped out at me, begging to be read.  Oh why didn't I read it on holiday?!  This wonderful book is a totally engrossing voyage of discovery, on a single stretch of beach in the north west of England.   As with the best travel books, it encompasses a variety of subjects, from the natural flora and fauna, through history, oceanography, geology, sociology leading to many unexpected topics, even including conspiracy theories.

 

This has without doubt been my favourite book of the year so far, and has re-ignited by own love of the coast (we live in a seaside town as I couldn't bear to be far from water), and I fully intend to make more thorough investigations of my own bit of beach, although it's only a small rocky bit of beach for exploring, and to spend more of my holiday time on the beautiful beaches around the south west coast of England.

 

If I had a teeny, tiny complaint about, it would be that I would have loved the book to have had some photographs to illustrate it.  There was one at the start of each section, but I would loved to have seen more, however, I can understand why they probably weren't included, as this is a reflection of the authors discoveries in words, which draw pictures of their own.  (Note: I bought another book at the time called Sea and Shore Cornwall by Lisa Wollett, which I also read this weekend, and is more of a reference book with beautiful photographs of the Cornish coast, and worked a perfect companion piece to Strands).

 

The writing is absolutely wonderful, neither too dry and academic, nor too lightweight or indulgent, but captivating and thought-provoking, imparting knowledge as well as expressing the authors connection with the beach she spends a year exploring.  A truly inspirational book that will stay with me for a long time, and I will reference in future to help with my own adventures.

Edited May 5, 2014 by chesilbeach