THE FRESH AND THE SALT – THE STORY OF THE SOLWAY
BY ANN LINGARD, BIRLINN, £25 (HB)
The western end of the border between England and Scotland is complicated by a vast swathe of river estuaries, salt marshes and tides known as the Solway Firth.
For many, it is a place to forget on their way to landscapes of more orthodox beauty but, as Ann Lingard reveals, it has life and mood to rival anywhere in the British Isles. She conjures a shifting mudscape of geese and livestock grazing, busy industry and loneliness but with a welcome focus on the tiny creatures that are the essential foundations, not just for the food chain but for the shaping of the landscape. We meet lugworms, diatoms, whelks and winkles but also the mudshrimps (a creature it is impossible not to share the author’s fascination for).
It’s a story of daily erosion and accretion – an ever-shifting landscape with new tales told every day but where the human role is not disparaged. Lingard treats people not as destructive interlopers – the enemy of nature – but as part of the natural history of the place, and that’s refreshing. But she does not shy away from exploring issues of habitat destruction and wildfowling.
Equally refreshing throughout is Lingard’s scientific knowledge of the area and its multitudinous inhabitants, delivered in riveting prose. This is deep and beautiful natural history writing rather than nature writing.
Fergus Collins, editor