🏖The Draw Of The Sea by @Wylmenmuir looks at what the sea means to those living in Cornwall and The Scilly Isles. #TuesdayBookBlog

The Draw of the Sea by Wyl Menmuir
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Draw Of The Sea by Wyl Menmuir is a non-fiction book based around the Cornish coastline. Wyl considers what the ocean and the shoreline mean to the many people who live and work in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

There are 12 chapters, each one dedicated to a different person’s relationship with the sea and the coast. They include the beachcomber, the lobster fisherman, rock pool enthusiasts, free divers, surf board makers, dawn swimmers, gig rowers and artists. Wyl has found a way to the heart of each of these types and brings to life how the sea affects and influences them.

Throughout the book there is a subtle but strong theme; man must respect the ocean, its creatures and change our terrible polluting ways, because we cannot survive without the seas.
As well as the urgency to protect our oceans, I felt a deep sense of peace while reading this and I sat and questioned what I like about the coast and the ocean. Why does it appeal to me? I think I fall into the beachcomber category, but I wouldn’t mind trying some of the gig rowing too.

Sprinkled with lovely black and white pictures, I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys the coast, particularly in Cornwall.

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Book description

Wyl Menmuir’s The Draw of the Sea is a book about the fishermen, surfers, swimmers, beachcombers, conservationists, sailors and boatbuilders who make their living on the Cornish Coast.

Since the earliest stages of human development, the sea has fascinated and entranced us. It feeds us, sustaining communities and providing livelihoods, but it also holds immense destructive power which can take all those away in an instant.

It connects us to far away places, offering the promise of new lands and voyages of discovery, but also shapes our borders, carving divisions between landmasses and eroding the very ground beneath our feet.

In this beautifully-written meditation on what it is that draws us to the waters’ edge, author Wyl Menmuir tells the stories of the people whose lives revolve around the sea in the Cornish community where he lives.

In twelve interlinked chapters, Menmuir explores the lives of local fishermen steeped in the rich traditions of a fishing community, the beachcombers who wander the shores in search of the varied objects which wash ashore and the stories they tell, and all number of others who have made their lives on the beautiful Cornwall coast. 

He also writes movingly about his own connection to the sea, telling heartfelt personal anecdotes about what it has come to mean in his and his family’s lives.

This book is a meaningful and moving work into how we interact with the environment around us, and how it comes to shape the course of our lives. As unmissable as it is compelling, as profound as it is personal, this must-read book will delight anyone familiar with the intimate and powerful pull which the sea holds over us.

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