Strands
A Year of Discoveries on the Beach
Published on 6. June 2013
Book
Paperback/Softback
256 pages
978-0-09-953243-9 (ISBN)
Description
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.
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.
Reviews / Votes
A fine book... Transparent, undeceived prose -- Kate Kellaway * Guardian * Compelling ... well-contextualised, sharply-observed, clued up, environmentally aware and deeply researched * Independent * With clarity and candour, in the natural voice of a modern storyteller, she tells what she sees at the intersection of herself and whatever is delivered to her by the tide * The Times * Sprackland has a wonderfully curious eye * Financial Times * Simply gorgeous ... One of the finest piece of writing, nature or otherwise, to emerge this year * Big Issue * If a book can have the appeal of a really good long walk, this one does * Daily Mail * Lovely travelogue * Metro * Elegant * Economist * A delightful book -- Sally Morris * Daily Mail *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Vintage Publishing
Target group
Professional and scholarly
College/higher education
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 130 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
225 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-09-953243-9 (9780099532439)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
05/2012
1st Edition
Vintage Digital
€12.99
Available for download
Person
Jean Sprackland is the author of five poetry collections, including Tilt, which won the 2007 Costa Poetry Award. She has also published two works of non-fiction, Strands: A Year of Discoveries on the Beach, which won the 2012 Portico Prize, and These Silent Mansions: A Life in Graveyards in 2020. Her forthcoming titles are Night Vision, a non-fiction exploration of darkness, in November 2025, and Goyle, Chert, Mire, her latest poetry collection, in April 2026.