Strands: A Year of Discoveries on the Beach

by Jean Sprackland

Strands describes a year's worth of walking on the ultimate inter-tidal and constantly turning up 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.

Genres: Nonfiction, Nature, Essays, Natural History, Travel, British Literature, History

258 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 1, 2012

About the author

Jean Sprackland is a poet and writer. She is the winner of the Costa Poetry Award in 2008, and the Portico Prize for Non-Fiction in 2012. Her books have also been shortlisted for the Forward Prize, the TS Eliot Prize and the Whitbread Award.

Jean is Reader in Poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University.

She is a trustee of the Poetry Archive, the world’s premier online collection of recordings of poets reading their work.

Jean has worked as a consultant and project manager for organisations involved with literature and education. She has held residencies in schools and universities, and is a tutor for the Arvon Foundation.

She lives in London.

Reviews

[Penny · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was wonderful. I'd read glowing reviews and really wanted to read, and it was even better than I'd anticipated.
Deceptively simple idea in that the author writes (or meditates) about her year round walks on a stretch of beach in NW England. She realises that whatever she finds washed up has a tale to tell of how it got there.
I particularly envy her seeing the wreck of the Star of Hope -

"Every so often the sands shift enough to reveal great mysteries: the Star of Hope, wrecked on Mad Wharf in 1883 and usually just visible as a few wooden stumps, is suddenly raised one day, up from the depths - an entire wreck, black and barnacled, and on either side two more ruined ships, taking the air for a while before sinking back under the sand".

The writing often reminds me of Kathleen Jamie, who she references once in the book. They both have the skill of taking just about any subject and making it interesting - not easy!

[Sophy H · Rating 5 out of 5]

*Re-read April/May 2023 - remains a beautifully poetic narrative on a year of finds along a Liverpool beach. Jean has a flair for the descriptive; I could almost smell the salt of the sea air when reading. A fantastic nature read.

Original review: This was a beautifully written and fascinating book about bizarre, mundane, everyday and extraordinary finds along the Ainsdale coastline.

Jean Sprackland is a talented writer and her book struck just the right level between informative, personal and nature writing.

I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Recommended to anyone who has ever walked along the beach and thought "oooh, what's that?!"

[Deb · Rating 4 out of 5]

I saw jean at Durham book fest and found myself really interested in the concept of this book. It did not disappoint - of course i love the sea and am already captivated by the variety of objects that `turn up` on shore but I really liked Jeans idea of tracing them backwards. captivating and oddly restful- like having abeach walk in a book.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

From BBC Radio 4 - Book of the week:
A year of discoveries on the beach. Jean Sprackland meditates on objects revealed by the shape-shifting sands, or washed up on the wild beaches between Blackpool and Liverpool.

Recorded on location on Ainsdale Sands, 'Strands' is a book about what is lost and buried, then re-discovered; about all the things you find on a beach, dead or alive, natural or man-made; about mutability and transformation - about sea-change.

In today's episode, Jean contemplates the miraculous re-appearance of the Star of Hope, wrecked on Mad Wharf in 1883, but suddenly raised up from the depths one day - an entire wreck, black and barnacled, taking the air for a while before sinking back under the sand.

Read by Jean Sprackland

Abridged by Miranda Davies

Produced by Emma Harding

About the author: Jean Sprackland is the author of three books of poetry and a collection of short stories. Her most recent poetry collection, Tilt (Cape, 2007), won the Costa Poetry Award. Hard Water (Cape, 2003) was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation, and was shortlisted for both the T S Eliot Prize and the Whitbread Award for Poetry. She was chosen as one of the Next Generation Poets in 2004.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01jggkw

[Wendy Greenberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Living by the sea, the beach is an inevitable magnet. I moved to this piece of coast, the shifting sands of which which Sprackland describes and was completely sucked into its otherworldliness, likewise this book and its eclectic contents.

The author draws moments in time out to surround them with stories of history, local life, dangers, marine life, ecology and human waste amongst the ever changing sea and sky.

I learned so much and expect I will be returning to sections of this book when back from my own beachcombing adventures. The thought of whether I will ever see the rising hulls of ships wrecked long ago, rising from the sand and then reclaimed again is inherently exciting. So too is everything else thrown out and drawn back into the vast water be it animal, vegetable or mineral.

A reading joy

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I was a kid I spent many holidays at the beach, always the same area as my Grandparents had a caravan there, I found the beach boring though. The beaches in that area were always shingle (lots of stones), so no chance of making a sand castle only lots of pain as you walked barefoot down to the sea. Instead of the beach I would go exploring, looking for caves and climbing up the cliffs (you were always allowed to do dangerous stuff in those days). If only I had read this book as a kid, I would know what to go looking for, I did find starfish, crabs and the odd jellyfish to poke with a stick but I never thought of checking out the rubbish that had washed up.

Jean Sprackland spends a year wandering along the beach seeing what she can find, she finds dead animals, a tonne of cigarette butts (Shame on you smokers!) a tonne of tampon wrappers (Shame on you women!) and one marathon wrapper (Shame on me probably). Some of the things Jean finds are amazing, she comes across a china cup that had been floating in the sea for half a century, the fact it was in one piece is amazing. For Jean though finding the item is not the end, if she can she'll research the item and try to find out it's history.

A couple of issues I had with this book, not enough pictures, I had to keep going to the google machine to look up sea mice and sea squirts. When she writes she keeps going off on a tangent, it feels like only a small part of the book is spent on the beach, the rest of the time is spent reminiscing and researching.

It was a very entertaining read, I've learnt loads and found out some very interesting info on some super freaky sea creatures....I've also ended up adding another 10 books to my reading list.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book despite the fact that the beaches I walk in Oregon are more different than I realized compared to Jean Sprackland's beach near Liverpool. Sprackland is a poet and the writing is magnificent. Anyone who loves the coast will enjoy this book.

[Bettie · Rating 3 out of 5]

BOTW

Jean Sprackland contemplates the reappearance of the Star of Hope, wrecked in 1883.

blurb - A year of discoveries on the beach. Jean Sprackland meditates on objects revealed by the shape-shifting sands, or washed up on the wild beaches between Blackpool and Liverpool.

Recorded on location on Ainsdale Sands, 'Strands' is a book about what is lost and buried, then re-discovered; about all the things you find on a beach, dead or alive, natural or man-made; about mutability and transformation - about sea-change.

In today's episode, Jean contemplates the miraculous re-appearance of the Star of Hope, wrecked on Mad Wharf in 1883, but suddenly raised up from the depths one day - an entire wreck, black and barnacled, taking the air for a while before sinking back under the sand.

Read by Jean Sprackland

Abridged by Miranda Davies

Produced by Emma Harding

About the author: Jean Sprackland is the author of three books of poetry and a collection of short stories. Her most recent poetry collection, Tilt (Cape, 2007), won the Costa Poetry Award. Hard Water (Cape, 2003) was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation, and was shortlisted for both the T S Eliot Prize and the Whitbread Award for Poetry. She was chosen as one of the Next Generation Poets in 2004.

The Star of Hope photographed in February 2005.

She was built at the Stephen and Forbes boatbuilding yard at Peterhead and was launched in 1865.In the late 1800's it was normal that Vessels would be expected in the Mersey given that they had been spotted rounding the top West corner of the Welsh coast and the details telegraphed to their owners. http://www.martyngriff.co.uk/page02.htm

Laverbread

Sea mouse

Sea stars

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sprackland visits the same beach time and time again and her observations and findings over the seasons are detailed with poetic and thoughtful prose. The book is laid out in four sections that correspond with the seasons. The chapters within these sections split over all type of subjects, but atre always centred around items found or seen on this particular beach.

The book picks up on threads and detail from lots of other books that I have read, in particular Sightlines, Edgelands, Moby-Duck: The True Story of 28,800 Bath Toys Lost at Sea and of the Beachcombers, Oceanographers, Environmentalists, and Fools, Including the Author, Who Went in Search of Them and the The Wild Places. These are all books that are written by authors who can evoke a particular time and a sense of place effortlessly.

Well worth reading.

[Zoë Marriott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lyrical and at times revelatory. I wish the author had confided more about herself and her own history: I suppose I imagined this as a kind of memoir, but it's not that at all. Still lovely, though.

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I took some time reading this book, because I wanted to read it on springlike days, to reflect the airy and light touch Sprackland imparts and the freshness of walking along a beach with the wind in your hair. Alas, coming out of the back end of winter into spring in the UK, I have to take my days as I find them.
Still whatever the weather, this was a lovely read. Finds along Sprackland’s stretch of beach prompt ruminations of the kind we might all have if the discoveries had been ours. Some finds prompt deep thought and the chapter on plastic was disturbing. However, others are light as froth on a breeze. My deepest interest though, was of the ancient footsteps uncovered by the sea, brief and poignant, what an extremely lucky find.
I loved that many of the finds were taken home and treasured. Discarded, cracked and unwanted as they may be, they are given a home again and they continue to prompt, both meditations on the object itself and of the moment they were found and the sea that gave them up.

[Kirsty · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my favourite places to be is on the beach, and I have been lucky enough to visit them all over the world; from Australia's Bondi Beach on a very breezy December day, to hidden turquoise coves in Croatia and Montenegro, and the sand-swept, dune-filled coasts of Northern France and Belgium. Unfortunately, at present, I live in a landlocked English county and, like so many others across the world, was long separated from the beach by numerous lockdowns and travel bans.

One piece of solace which I found during this time was in Jean Sprackland's first nature book, Strands: A Year of Discoveries on the Beach, which won the Portico Prize in 2012. Here, Sprackland has penned 'a series of meditations prompted by walking on the wild estuarial beaches of Ainsdale Sands between Blackpool and Liverpool', which she recorded over a single calendar year. She explores, primarily, 'what is lost and buried and then discovered... about flotsam and jetsam, about mutability and transformation - about sea-change.'

Strands has been split into corresponding seasons, which is one of my favourite structures in which to present a nature book. I love to see how one place can differ so much from one season to the next; even from one month to the next. This is one of the main elements of focus for Sprackland; she is aware of every small change, and of what to expect as one month passes into the next. For her, this 'stretch of coast has an entirely different spirit. It's all about change, shift, ambiguity. It reinvents itself. It has a talent for concealment and revelation. Things turn up here; things go missing.'

In her preface, Sprackland immediately sets out that she has been walking along this particular beach for twenty years. For her, writing Strands is a bittersweet experience, as she is about to leave her home for London, and a new marriage. She knows that this is the last time in which she will be able to travel to Ainsdale Sands so often, and wished to record this process. She writes that over those two decades '... our relationship has grown complex and intimate. It has become, as places can, an inner as well as an outer landscape, one I carry around in my head and explore in my imagination even when I'm far from here.' She goes on to say: 'The version I carry in my head is endlessly flexible, but of course the external place does not obey me at all. It remains stubbornly unknowable.'

Sprackland is also a poet, and she writes her prose using careful, memorable, and even sometimes sharp, vocabulary choices. She sees her beach with a poet's eyes. It is, for her, 'a place of big skies and lonely distances, a shifting palette of greys and blues; a wild, edge-of-the-world place.' She goes on to say that 'This characteristic of the beach - its capacity to surprise and mystify - is what brings me back here, day after day, month after month.'

Alongside the usual items which plague coasts all over the world - primarily plastic and litter - there are some surprises in store for Sprackland. In the first chapter, which occurs in spring, for example, she comes across 'three wrecked ships lying on the surface' of the sand. These, she has never seen before. She realises that she must have 'cycled over them, oblivious' when they had previously been buried under the sand. These boats, she finds out after conversing with a friend, that these ships show themselves for a few weeks at a time before being reburied, sometimes for years at a time. She later says: 'I've often noticed a kind of "rule of recurrence": I find something unusual - something I've never seen here before - and almost immediately I find another the same, and then another. And certain kinds of objects come and go; they're numerous when I visit one week, and have vanished by the next.'

Sprackland goes on to find so many different things during her wanderings - mermaid's purses, which hold the eggs of sharks, skates, and rays; samphire; 'a bicycle saddle, a knitting needle, a large bleached knuckle bone, a light bulb'; a swarm of ladybirds; even a 'blister pack of Prozac', and a message in a bottle. She describes the way in which the 'detritus of our lives is washed, softened and given back to us cleansed of its dirt and shame. That's the work of the sea. It comes in faithfully, on schedule, like an old-time religion, and washes away our sins.' She also nods to the myriad places in which these items she finds start their journey, 'from so many different sources and directions: from the hands of walkers and picnickers; from the air; from underneath the sand; and of course from the sea. In an age where science has unlocked so many of Earth's secrets, and almost the entire planet has been mapped and imaged, our oceans and shores remain relatively unexplored. Each new discovery presents questions and mysteries.'

longside the physical landscape of her particular beach, Sprackland has written about the crushing changes which climate change is already bringing to the species which are found just off the coast. She also wishes to raise an awareness of just how much one single person can see them changing. She urges: 'Those of us with beaches to walk on should be learning the language of the things we find there. We should be reading the signs.' She writes with a great deal of insight, stating: 'If in the course of opening our eyes to environmental realities we have lost some of our simple pleasures and amazements, we have replaced them with passionate collective attachments to a few powerful symbols of what is previous and threatened: the polar bear, the tiger, the wildflower meadow, and so on. Our losses are not so often focused on the mucous, the smelly and the commonplace.'

thoroughly enjoyed Sprackland's second nature book, These Silent Mansions: A Life in Graveyards; indeed, I think about it often. Here, too, there is so much to consider, and to appreciate. Sprackland's prose is often quite profound; she makes one stop and think throughout, with sentences such as the following: 'It's dizzying, the realisation that we spend our lives moving precariously on the outer skin of the planet, and that same skin contains all the stuff of history.' She is a considerate and quite meditative author. Her prose is beautiful and attentive; there is a haunting appeal to it. As with These Silent Mansions, Strands is highly detailed, and so well researched; there is also such a visceral sense of place within it.

I love the way in which Sprackland blends her own observations with scientific facts, and the way in which she includes quotes from other writers, particularly poets. Strands is relatively introspective, and deals with such a comparatively small stretch of coastline, but Sprackland manages to discuss so much within its pages. It is an unusual nature book in its focus, and one which I would highly recommend.

[Jeff Goostrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

More a diary, fleeting. Some entries interesting others not.

[Lu Etchells · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

It’s been a while since a read any non-fiction, and it was great to stumble across this beauty. Having grown up in Southend on Sea, I have many happy childhood memories of wandering along the shoreline and investigating what the sea tipped back out on to land. Sprackland has done a wonderful job of evoking those memories, but that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be thoroughly enjoyable to those with a landlocked background.

The way the detritus of our everyday lives, both past and present, is displayed so elegantly and indeed poetically, is what makes this book so enjoyable. Not only that, but the history of a myriad of discoveries, from Neolithic footprints to numerous shipwrecks, makes it far more educational than I would have imagined. How factual all of the science is, I’m not sure, but as it’s not meant to be a text book, I’ll not dwell on that.

A really fascinating and engaging read, worth four stars.

[Maura Heaphy Dutton · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing, but I'm prepared to accept that this is one of those "It's not you, it's me ..." reactions. I just found it bland and unfocussed.

I picked this up because I enjoyed Lara Maiklem's Mudlarking so much, and this seemed to be "Mudlarking on the Irish Sea coast." (The blurb describes it --incorrectly -- as a walk down the coast between Blackpool and Liverpool, an area that I know well, and would love to know more about.)

As it happens, it is both more and less than the blurb suggests: Sprackland decides to do a close observation of what she sees on her regular walk between Southport and Formby, on the Lancashire coast -- a distance of about 10 miles. (And yes, that is on "the coast between Blackpool and Liverpool," but IMHO, that's a rather different thing.) Some of the things that Sprackland sees on her walks, in the 50-odd pages that I read, before I decided that life is just too short, are interesting and intriguing -- wrecked ships that are buried by the sands, only to emerge occasionally, when the tides are just right; the detritus of humankind and nature, dumped on the beach by the constant churning of the water. But it's pretty slim, and there's a lot of poeticizing, a lot of random philosophizing that just didn't engage me.

[Ruth Brumby · Rating 4 out of 5]

For the work of a poet, this book is perhaps surprisingly prosaic; it is very clear and thoroughly researched and carefully observed, so the poet's approach shows, but the language is quite plain, conversational and does not use the sound, imagery or concision that a poem might. This style works well.
There are, however, many references to poems and to other writers, as literature is clearly part of her way of thinking. I very much enjoyed that, as it's part of how I understand the world too.
Each section has an internal structure: each begins with a found object, reflects on it more or less discursively and returns to the object. The sections are structured into a whole by seasons. I did not feel that overall structure quite worked, but I suppose it fits with the idea of one tide after another, both similar and different. The strand line is not quite clear though.
The overriding themes of celebration of variety and distress at human carelessness do run through as the line of thought of the beachcomber.

[Kate Parr · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a beautiful and evocative work of whimsy, coincidence and daydreaming, and I will definitely be trying to find other prose by her. Essentially, she takes the same walk during the four seasons and uses the things she finds on the beach as the jumping off point for general musings, investigations, conversations. Nothing terribly startling, it's all very gentle and dreamy, but it felt like that was the perfect way to write about walks along the beach. I would pair this with Wintering by Katherine May, in that they both acknowledge the literal and emotional changing seasons, the impact of nature on us and have that dream-like quality of description and wondering that is so easy to lose hours in enjoying.

[Ann James · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book, unlike anything I've ever read. Ms Spracklands experience in writing poetry shines thru' with her descriptive prose but I also admired her decision to research thoroughly the things she found on the beach & record the scientific/historical info that research revealed rather than just 'wax lyrical' about the landscape, tho' beautifully she does that. Perfect for beachcombers, the curious and the romantic.

[Veronica Liew · Rating 5 out of 5]

A loving, meditative, informative and reflective book about the poet Jean Sprackland's "year of discoveries" on her stretch of local beach, the Ainsdale Sands between Blackpool and Liverpool. I had this book on my list since 2012 and finally bought it last year: really glad I did because she has a wonderfully frank way of writing which sets the reader right next to her. Highly recommend this slim tome.

[Georgina Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read this twice now and enjoyed it even more second time around. Sprackland explores the history, biology, zoology and so much more of a stretch of coast near Formby, interlaced with her own walks and beachcombing finds. The variety and breadth of subjects means you never get bored!

[Toby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delightful. I love Sprackland's writing: each chapter and its own topic based on the flotsam and jetsam found on beaches: great wads of dumped tobacco; plastic, plastic and more plastic; other-wordly sea creatures. I loved the way the prose was interspersed with poetry, too.

A gorgeous book.

[Cathie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully lyrical, detailed musings from a year of beach visits. Jean Sprackland is a poet, which shows, but her thoughts meander in unusual ways and there is both excellent detail and deft humour combined in these short essays. I really enjoyed reading this

[Nicky · Rating 3 out of 5]

For all beachcombers

[Clare · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting read, and a lovely way to visit the seashore without getting sand in your shoes!

[Francesca Tye · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book documents a year of findings and observations on the same stretch of coastline between Southport and Formby Point. The author's finds are quite random and these prompt her into ruminations, which are equally wide-ranging. I didn't find these very engaging and found the book a bit unfocussed for me, but her conversational style of writing was very easy to read and I completed the book quickly. I did find some discoveries interesting: The Start of Hope ship, a cup from a Cunard Liner, a sea mouse and different seaweeds, but the book lacked any real substance for me. It was about the tide - what's revealed and then swept away (in the case of the ship or Neolithic footprints, sometimes very quickly) and I read this book in a similar way - I took all her flotsam and jetsam in, then pretty quickly let it go.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wondered if this book might be larded, weighed down by poetic language. Instead it moves daintily over the surface, leaving me feeling as though I have joined Jean Sprackland on her Merseyside coast walks and that we've had a jolly good chat covering all sorts of subjects. We've spotted sometimes to poke about in the sand, picked things up sometimes, searched in vain on occasion for some really exciting titbit, and other times just enjoyed the peace of the place... peace if not necessarily beauty. Must have been a lovely man to move away to London for!

If you enjoy watching the 'Coast' TV programme, this is a little bit similar but calmer, quieter, less energetic, just about no visuals, but certainly not inferior.

[Ade · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deeply researched, beautifully written and full of surprising - occasionally unsettling - facts about sea life and the coastal environment. Jean Sprackland has a healthy curiosity about everything she sees on her strolls, and the erudition and ability to put it down on paper in the most readable fashion. A treat for anyone who loves walking along the beach, even if it's only once a year while on holiday.

[Dorothy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jean Sparackland has written a journal in 12 parts (one chapter a month) as she writes about the beaches north of Liverpool which she walks most days. Sprackland documents what she finds on the beach, identifying both rare and common organisoms as well as flotsam and jetsam. At times the description is disheartening, as when she describes the amount of garbage that comes in with the tide and she reflects on vast deposits of plastic rubbish in the oceans.
An excellent book to dip into.

[Loops · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful Book.. I adore Ainsdale and the Sefton Coast and this is the perfect book to bring the strand line to life.. I feel the wind, I touch the sand,I smell the sea within the words on the pages .
Jean has a beautiful way with words and her treasures from the strandline have given me the inspiration to create my own treasures on my own mantle piece. If you love the coast and have wondered about finds on the strand line this is for you. Simply enjoy .
This is the coast I love.

[Seren Burton · Rating 3 out of 5]

A beautiful articulation of Sprackland's year on one of Britain's most cherished landscapes, the beach. I enjoyed her personal diversions from physical objects she found to things she'd experienced or researched. The book possessed a real diary like feel with scientific accuracy, and I found it's fantastic for expanding your trivial knowledge of the beach, as well as getting to know the author through her sentimental authorial voice.