Sea Bean: A Beachcomber’s Search for a Magical Charm―A Memoir – A Natural History of Islands, Restoration, and Belonging

by Sally Huband

SEA BEAN is a coastal treasure. Its hard-won attentiveness shows the wonder and vulnerability of our interconnected oceans, wildlife and people. In Sally's writing, beachcombing - an old island pursuit - is modern, revealing and restorative. The next time I am at the shore I will have a deeper appreciation and curiosity

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Nature, Audiobook, Scotland, Natural History, Biography

352 pages, Paperback

First published April 6, 2023

Reviews

[Crazytourists_books · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a lovely book!
I really enjoyed the descriptions, it was as if I was walking next to the author to all these places (I love the sea, I wish I could visit Shetland some time), heard the birds, saw the waves and the whales and the seals.
But I felt a stronger bond with the author, that goes beyond my love for the sea, and that had to do with her physical condition. My pregnancies have also left me with intense sacro-iliac pain for which I've been ignored, gaslighted and told that there is nothing to be done.

[Helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful book. You can experience all the sights, sound, tastes and smells as if you were actually with the author. It is bittersweet in places, but it feels honest and "real". It made me want to visit all of the islands and places mentioned. It also encouraged me to research maps and sources to learn more.

[Juliana · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like Katherine May's or Sy Montgomery's writing, you will like Sea Bean: A Beachcomber's Search for a Magical Charm by Sally Huband.

I love this kind of book—one part memoir and one part nature writing. Sally Huband lives on Shetland and combs the beaches looking for a sea bean, a hard seed that has floated to the island from a tropical place and is often used as a good luck or magical charm. On her journey, we learn about her struggles with chronic illness, we learn about life on remote islands, and also about the birds and other wild inhabitants of the Atlantic and her shorelines. Huband has a scientific background and writes about local science projects, the local history of sea beans, and the hobby of sending messages in bottles.

The book encouraged me to see my nearby beach, Point No Point, in a new light and look closer at our little stretch. It is lovely living so close to the ocean and I'm looking a bit closer now at what washes up on our shore here.

[Cathryn Pattinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a unique read.
Not so much a story, but a diary of an experiences living in Shetland. The author bravely battles with a debilitating condition whilst dedicating herself to nature conservation, living with her family and bringing up her two children on this remote wild Scottish Isle.

[JanGlen · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars, upgraded to 4. I thoroughly enjoyed the first half of this book, evoking as it does the landscape and ‘feel’ of Shetland, and introducing me to the wonder of beach combing. I sometimes struggled a little with the second half when on the biological detail of species took over, and the damage we are doing to our environment became more of a focus. I hesitate to write that as the damage is overwhelming and something we need to face.

[my.bookshelf.87 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an immersive book which focuses mainly on beachcombing. However, it also delves into various other subjects such as folklore, climate change, nature, witchcraft etc. As an avid fan of all things nautical myself, including the pastime of beachcombing, I found this book fascinating. It makes you want to get to the nearest beach to explore!

[Star Bookworm · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF'd at 16%. After what felt like the 20th time in just a few chapters, the author mentioned how lost her identity had become by being a mother. I have so many problems with this attitude and the degradation it has done to an entire generation of women. There are many books to be read out in the world. No need to continue wasting my time here.

[Silvia Traverso · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ho avuto molta difficoltà a finire questo libro perché si dilunga in dettagli tecnici naturalistici poco interessanti per chi non è del settore . Ci sono degli accenni alla vita sulle isole e alla quotidianità che a mio avviso, sarebbe stato interessante approfondire .

[Dianne Tanner · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't think I have ever taken so many notes or added so many beaches to my to visit list before whilst reading a book?

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sally Huband is from "Port Zed" as I knew it, growing up a little further down the coast/estuary from her. By stages she ends up in a more stereotypically sea connected Shetland, not on some writerly whim or personal therapeutic endeavour but for the prosaic "moving with husband's job".

This is in many ways a lovely, interesting and well written book... which sometimes set my teeth on edge. Frequently this was to do with odd repetitions of words, although it starts on the beautiful cover with the title and the image (it's not a sea bean). I think you'd be disappointed not to encounter lots of local language in a book like this but it felt weird to have 'bonxie' italicised every time it appears... I rather suspect more people now know these challenging birds as bonxies than as great skuas. I felt that 'palindromic rheumatism' was repeated in full almost like an incantation - this being the unusual form of arthritis which she develops following the birth of her second child and which constrains her activities.

There are some sour paragraphs on breastfeeding and contamination of human milk which I felt should have been rounded out (although the (almost certainly deceptively) simple and abrupt words "I didn't enjoy it" perhaps explain why that was not the choice that was made in the writing or, apparently, the research). I was surprised too at the gaping hole where the controversies around the grindarap should be in the section on the Faroes (I don't think the word is even mentioned).

Even without these pieces of grit, this is not a cosy book of nature or travel writing but there is something heart warming about seeing someone find their niche and making connections. You get the sense of the conservation scientist she professionally once was. There are also lots of little touches such as the occasions on which she and her husband set out beachcombing together after seeing their children off on the school bus. There's a dense chapter on plans for a massive wind farm which is very thought provoking, especially in its historical analogies. Indeed, for a book set 'in an island' as she would put it, it is tremendously wide ranging.

[Belinda · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had a lot of expectations riding on this book after finishing the incredible memoir, Storm Pegs, by Jen Hadfield. Jen's warmth, vivacity and gift for writing was definitely NOT replicated in Sea Bean, although I didn't expect it to be quite so adept. However, this memoir was more of a person-gets-on-their-soapbox combined with an informal gathering of data about seabirds, climate change, wind farms, etc, that got dull and depressing after a bit. I don't have a problem with people having a position around politics or world issues, but this WAS meant to be a memoir and Sally couldn't even bring herself to call her husband by his first name let alone share anything much at all about home life.

The chapters I did enjoy were the ones where the family and/or friends or even Sally herself, explored and did things. The tiny jellyfish and sea life in jars was possibly the only bit about nature that felt interesting and slightly joyous. The rest of the time I felt assailed by the skeletons of birds that stunk and dropped maggots on the floor, or by the baby seals washing away in the high Shetland tides and I wanted to get rid of the book asap. I certainly sped read through a lot of those chapters with their OCD need to communicate too much detail.

I get that scientists (having worked with many of them) can have tunnel vision, be self absorbed, and feel quite superior to the people around them that haven't written a thesis over a period of 3 years, but this book has confirmed that I don't enjoy that kind of company. Unfortunately Sea Bean was that kind of company.

[Jean · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful book! I am an inveterate beachcomber and once did find a sea bean though lost it long ago. I turn to the beach when sad or troubled and find great solace there especially if I take along one of my children who search for groatie buckies or plastic waste to make art. . Sally’s knowledge of nature and ecology, her views on pollution and wind farms is truly enlightening and has given me lots to think about. Above all her persistence in face of great physical hardship is inspiring. Two quotes stand out for me personally,
Hill ground, we live with it’s presence and it’s presence inhabits us’ it is there when I need it, sometimes the sea is too much or not enough and then I can find what I need in the hill ground’
‘Beachcombing is not what you find but what you hope to find’- Amos Wood.

[Lucy-Bookworm · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an very interesting book, with an interesting tale of personal healing & growth woven with folklore, memories and the natural world. I had not heard fo "sea beans" prior to reading this book and found the concept fascinating, along with some of the "beach combing" stories.
As part memoir, it did feel a little repetative in places & lacked some depth of background knowledge that I had hoped for - I am not familiar with Shetland & many of the islands & would have liked to know more about them & their wildlife in addition to what was given.

Whilst I ususally really enjoy a book read by its author, feeling that it makes everything more personal, I felt let down by this book. The narration was not smooth, there were odd pauses & it felt like somebody reading a very unfamiliar text. I feel it could be so much more powerful as a book with a smoother narration.

[Ange Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's hard to categorise this book - at once a travelogue, of the author's settling in the remote islands of Shetland, then a local history of the islands, an account of living with chronic pain, a feminist story of women and their impact on their environments and finally a stark warning about the climate crisis. All of this may sound a bit heavy and you may assume the book is hundreds of pages long to fit all this in, but you'd be wrong. Huband writes with a real lightness of touch, evocative and spare. She captures the wild expanses of Shetland's coast and weaves her stories into this stormy backdrop. Utterly captivating work - I tore through this book and less than two days and it left me wanting to hear more.

[Cozy Reviews · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this atmospheric love story to the ocean. The author writes a engaging story of her search for a elusive sea bean on the north shores of Europe and life suffering with chronic pain. I applaud the author for writing honestly of the dislike of childbirth and the awful health consequences for women with chronic pain and the trauma for chronic pain patients. She writes honestly and that is always appreciated by readers.
She writes of one living with chronic pain as so many of us do. She utilizes the ocean for healing both her body and her mind. The journey is beautiful and will lead you to your local beaches with a new perspective and appreciation of the healing powers of our oceans. Well done to the author. I loved this book.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This feels like a gentle, lilting book of beachcombing and illness, at the same time as it is set in the Shetlands with wild storms knocking out the power and during the climate emergency when the ocean and everything that relies on it is under threat. Sally Huband's story of her loss of identity as she goes from being an academic/ecologist to a mother with a chronic illness and small children is interesting. She moves to the Shetlands with her husband, a helicopter pilot, and is unable to find a job that pays enough for childcare, especially with her arthritis. She takes to beachcombing and looks for a sea bean - a seed from a vine in the tropics that has been considered as magic by some.

[Sarah Bayliss · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘Sea Bean’ is an unusual, mesmerising read. Huband combines meticulous academic research with beautiful lyrical prose, the whole project spurred by her own fanatical interest in marine life and search for an elusive sea bean. She writes with total candour about her own life, motherhood and illness at the same time. I loved the intersection between the natural sciences (marine oceanography, geology, botany, animal and bird life), history, literature, folklore and linguistics. What a pleasure and privilege to meet with Huband’s brilliant curious mind through the pages of this book.

[Clare Robb · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book should have been perfect for me! The first half really was engaging, informative and right up my street; I listened to the audiobook during every spare minute I had. The landscape and wildlife of Shetland felt present in every aspect and Sally Huband’s writing was so evocative.

I was so sad to find that the second half just didn’t compel me like the first and began to find the stunted delivery of the audiobook genuinely difficult to read around.

A regretful 3 stars so far, but maybe I’d pick up a physical copy for a closer reading in the future.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the story of Sally who moves to Shetland islands and spends her time beachcombering, describing her finds, telling the stories behind them. She seeks a Sea bean, a flat conker type seed that travels from exotic shores and is deemed to hold some protective characteristics. Sally looks back in time at the use of sea beans and other drift seeds, travelling to many of the Shetland Isles and talking to other people who also beachcomb. This is a non fiction book.

[Jan Reatherford · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don’t know quite how to rate this book. In many ways it reads like a scientific journal but about half way through it’s becomes more like an activist pushing an agenda. I don’t necessarily disagree with the agenda but it wasn’t what I expected from the book. I had to skip over much of the geographic references even though I did try to match the writing to the crude map included in the front. I finished it but it felt more like an assigned task than informative reading.

[Chris ELLIOTT · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this book on impulse at the visitor centre on Sumburgh Head and I'm so glad that I did.

I found the mix of personal experience and information from research worked really well and I very much enjoyed the mix of topics covered (folklore, wildlife, environmental concerns , and feminism).

Very often I find books that try to evoke the atmosphere of places and moments leave me frustrated by a torrent of words but in this book the descriptions really worked for me.

[Tania P · Rating 4 out of 5]

I appreciated this book’s messages and its depiction of the land and sea about Shetland. Not only does the author discuss her beachcombing activities, but she also delves into the impact of the climate emergency and her lived experience with chronic illness (something to which I can fully relate). She also discusses the history of life in Shetland. At times a sad, hard read when addressing the climate emergency and also her health challenges but an open and honest read.

[Clare · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has been a beautiful tonic for the brain evoking the environment of Shetland and the surrounding Scottish Isles, of the links to Iceland, Norway, Canada and South America, and of a community of beachcombers across the world.

Loved it. Release date 6th April.

https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/sea-b...

[Kerry · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this memoir really moving. As a person who also suffers with chronic pain Sally Huband's way of looking at the world gave me a lot of hope.

Feeling connected to the wider world when your body doesn't allow you to do very much is challenging, but from now on when I have my toes in the sand on the shore I'll look at things differently.

[Pam Mooney · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful memoir that reads like a novel and you will learn about a magical place and wonderful people. I enjoyed reading this book so much and learning about beachcombers and messages in a bottle and sea birds. So much! A magical book with lots to offer across disciplines and ages.
A good read.

[Gail Kennon · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 no where near the amount of beach-combing i had expected...guess beach combing and mud larking don't offer the same amount of adventures..also too long for what i gained from it and despite the references to hear health and stamina the only time i felt much for her was when she described her hands shaking in a small scene towards the end.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

An unusual book which doesn't really fall into any genre but honest and touching in places. I had never given any thought r wvwn been aware of the mythology around "drift seeds" which are durable large seeds which use ocean currents for dispersal on this case the north Atlantic drift from the Caribbean to Shetland.

[Kate M · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quiet and assuming book but charming and interesting. It is basically about beachcombing on the Shetland Islands. My only wish is that the book had actual photos of some of the locations the author was describing.

[Angela Davies · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slow burner but glad I stuck with it.

[Emma McKinley-Marston · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolutely beautiful and heart felt book, personal vulnerability and the most wonderful descriptions of Shetland and its beaches.