The joy of beachcombing

THE PEBBLES ON THE BEACH Clarence Ellis

(Faber & Faber, £9.99)

THIS beautifully written guide is a well-thumbed gem on my bookshelves. Published in 1954, The Pebbles on the Beach – whether delving into its pages for the first or umpteenth time – makes a charming and informative read.

As Clarence Ellis writes: “Most people collect something or other: stamps, butterflies, beetles, moths, dried and pressed wildflowers, old snuff boxes, china dogs and so forth. A few eccentrics even collect disused bus tickets! But collectors of pebbles are rare.”

The book was reissued in 2018 with a touching foreword by Mountains of the Mind author Robert Macfarlane, helping introduce it to a fresh audience among those who delight in life’s simple pleasures.

Ellis extols the merits of pebble-hunting as pleasant hobby “that makes little demand upon one’s patience and still less upon one’s physical energy”. For those who prefer their activities with a sedentary slant, this is one that can be enjoyed “from the luxurious sloth of a deckchair”.

The jacket of the book folds out to reveal its own hidden treasure: an illustrated spotter’s guide. There are 36 in total, identifying specimens ranging from a well-rounded pebble of fine-grained red sandstone to a fragment of jet and a broken piece of chalcedony.

The chapters span a breadth of subject matter such as The Shingle Beach; The Birth, Life and Death of a Pebble; and The Exciting Quest for Semi-Precious Stones.

My sole gripe is that the coastline chapter covers only England and Wales, a fact lamented by Ellis as he states: “The deep indentations of the Scottish coastline give it a length out of all proportion to the size of the country, and a description of it, even in bare outline, is outside the scope of this book.

“This is all the more to be deplored, because so much of the coast of Scotland is unsurpassed in grandeur and charm. It most certainly deserves a book to itself.” Well, quite.