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Looking Down at the Stars: Life beneath the waves
Discover the wonder of marine life seen up close in these joyous and sparkling essays.>/b>
In 2022, Christina Riley became an ‘underwater artist in residence’ at the Argyll Coast Hope Spot – a place of incredible natural beauty in Scotland also crucial for the health of the world’s oceans. She spent days submerged alongside marine life, before resurfacing to reflect, recreate and recount what she had seen – and the feelings of love, hope and responsibility her experience had evoked in her.
The resulting essays, collected in this stunning volume, swim through the kaleidoscope of marine life she found there, from starfish to seagrass to the water itself. What shines through all of them is a sense of wonder that is also a call to action. Looking Down at the Stars asks: how can we harness our feelings of awe at the natural world in order to take better care of it?
Christina Riley’s lyrical prose is the perfect guide to this unfamiliar underwater world, brimming with surprises, sunlight and sea stars.
In 2022, Christina Riley became an ‘underwater artist in residence’ at the Argyll Coast Hope Spot – a place of incredible natural beauty in Scotland also crucial for the health of the world’s oceans. She spent days submerged alongside marine life, before resurfacing to reflect, recreate and recount what she had seen – and the feelings of love, hope and responsibility her experience had evoked in her.
The resulting essays, collected in this stunning volume, swim through the kaleidoscope of marine life she found there, from starfish to seagrass to the water itself. What shines through all of them is a sense of wonder that is also a call to action. Looking Down at the Stars asks: how can we harness our feelings of awe at the natural world in order to take better care of it?
Christina Riley’s lyrical prose is the perfect guide to this unfamiliar underwater world, brimming with surprises, sunlight and sea stars.
144 pages, Hardcover
First published November 6, 2025
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About the author
Christina Riley
1 book2 followersBorn in Florida and living on the Ayrshire coast in Scotland, Christina Riley's work focuses on the intersections between art, literature and the natural world. She is particularly interested in intertidal waters and the undersea, and how perspectives shift with close looking, encouraging new ways of seeing and experiencing our surroundings, natural and otherwise.
Longlisted for Canongate's Nan Shepherd Prize for Nature Writing her debut book Looking Down at the Stars was published by Saraband in November 2025 and essays have been published by Gutter, Extra Teeth, Little Toller, Caught by the River, Minding Nature and more. She has exhibited photographic work at solo and group exhibitions across the UK and her first photobook, The Beach Today, was published by Guillemot Press in 2021.
In 2019 she started The Nature Library, exploring the role of literature in times of climate crisis through library installations, writing, artist’s books and collaborations with arts and environmental organisations.
Longlisted for Canongate's Nan Shepherd Prize for Nature Writing her debut book Looking Down at the Stars was published by Saraband in November 2025 and essays have been published by Gutter, Extra Teeth, Little Toller, Caught by the River, Minding Nature and more. She has exhibited photographic work at solo and group exhibitions across the UK and her first photobook, The Beach Today, was published by Guillemot Press in 2021.
In 2019 she started The Nature Library, exploring the role of literature in times of climate crisis through library installations, writing, artist’s books and collaborations with arts and environmental organisations.
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