A day at the English seashore is possible for everyone. Because even if you live in Derbyshire or Leicestershire, you’re never more than 60 miles or so from the sea. Let’s explore our coastline.
- Shell Life on the Seashore tells the story of marine creatures that used to live in empty shells: barnacles to oysters, cockles to sea slugs, winkles to carnivorous snails, molluscs to members of the octopus family. Don’t take shells from the beach, it harms ecosystems. It’s banned in Italy and a study in Spain found that removing shells takes away materials for birds’ nests, hiding places for fish and hermit crabs, and surfaces for sea plants to grow.
- The Salt Path is the story of Raynor and Moth (her husband of 32 years). When he is diagnosed with a terminal illness and their home and income is taken away, they make the brave and impulsive decision to walk the 630 miles of the sea-swept South West Coast Path. They life wild in the ancient weathered landscape of cliffs, sea and sky. yet their walk becomes a remarkable journey on the healing power of the natural world.
The Book of Pebbles is a book to understand what a pebble is, and how it got there. What is it that we see in pebbles at the beach? Is it their beauty, variation or simply associations with a happy time and place? Did you know that sand is finely divided rock? A beach is sandy or pebbly depends on whether it’s a bay with shallow water (less energy, sand) or high waves (pebbles). Colour depends on minerals (white Caribbean beaches are often dead coral).
Writer and pebble collector Christopher Stocks unearths the sometimes surprising story of our love-affair with pebbles, and considers how the way we see them today has been influenced over the years by artists, authors and even archaeologists. Printmaker Angie Lewin celebrates the experience of walking and sketching along the British coastline, often incorporating pebbles in her limited edition prints and paintings.
