{"product_id":"strands-a-year-of-discoveries-on-the-beach","title":"Jean Sprackland: Strands [2012] hardback","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis is the ultimate beachcomber's book. A series of meditations prompted by walking on the wild estuarial beaches of Ainsdale Sands between Blackpool and Liverpool, \u003ci\u003eStrands\u003c\/i\u003e 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 \u003ci\u003esea-change\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEvery 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd stranger still, perhaps, are the prehistoric footprints of humans, animals and birds on the beach: prints from the Late Mesolithic to mid-Neolithic period which are described as 'ephemeral archaeology' because they are preserved in the Holocene sediment, revealed briefly and then destroyed by the next tide.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eStrands\u003c\/i\u003e 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. Jean Sprackland, a prize-winning poet and natural storyteller, is the perfect guide to these shifting sands - this place of transformation.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Sprackland, Jean","offers":[{"title":"Very Good","offer_id":49029164925267,"sku":"XV80224087452","price":11.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0616\/4001\/6057\/files\/sprackland-jean-strands-a-year-of-discoveries-on-the-beach-xv80224087452-57370916847955.jpg?v=1726594697","url":"https:\/\/chaptersbookstore.com\/products\/strands-a-year-of-discoveries-on-the-beach","provider":"Chapters Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}