Strands by Jean Sprackland
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.
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 *
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 *
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.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780099532439 |
| ISBN 10 | 0099532433 |
| Title | Strands |
| Author | Jean Sprackland |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Vintage Publishing |
| Year published | 2013-06-06 |
| Number of pages | 256 |
| Prizes | Winner of Portico Prize for Literature: Non-fiction 2012 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |