Product Description
When art student Matt Myers decides to spend the summer with his mother at the Shell House he little guesses that he is about to step into the minefield of his family's past and recent history.Anne Church, a young Victorian; his mother, Hazel Myers; malacologist Elizabeth Wilson ... they are inextricably linked with each other and with the life and tragic death of Emily, the evangelist wife of Victorian naturalist Philip Henry Gosse. The story ranges across time and geography, from Victorian Glasgow to Ethiopia in the 1960s and present-day Cornwall: the boundaries between fact and fiction become blurred, as the separate lives are woven together by the themes of shells and snails, science and religion, love and death - and the sea
From the Publisher
Jane Gardam: "A big book with a MIND behind it!"
Anne Thwaite: "Immensely readable and extremely clever, Seaside Pleasures is a remarkable novel .. the blend of past and present, fact and fiction, is both curious and compelling."
Matt Ridley: " A very fine piece of writing that, uniqely among modern novels, makes real use of science rather than wearing science on its sleeve. Tremendously good plot, story and narrative style, fascinating history and even better science - a true two-culture achievement."
North Devon Journal: ".. a thoughtful compelling story, a very human account. The book is a rockpool itself, concealing seaside secrets as well as pleasures deep beneath the surface."
Anne Thwaite: "Immensely readable and extremely clever, Seaside Pleasures is a remarkable novel .. the blend of past and present, fact and fiction, is both curious and compelling."
Matt Ridley: " A very fine piece of writing that, uniqely among modern novels, makes real use of science rather than wearing science on its sleeve. Tremendously good plot, story and narrative style, fascinating history and even better science - a true two-culture achievement."
North Devon Journal: ".. a thoughtful compelling story, a very human account. The book is a rockpool itself, concealing seaside secrets as well as pleasures deep beneath the surface."
From the Author
More information and images, for Seaside Pleasures and Ann Lingard's other novels can be found on her website, annlingard.com and on solwayshorestories.co.uk
About the Author
She is the founder of 'SciTalk', the free web-based resource for fiction-writers, and lives near the Solway Firth, a unique and ever-changing land- and sea-scape, which figures in both her fiction and non-fiction: see Solway Shore Stories
Ann Lingard - who now lives on a small-holding in North-West Cumbria - is a novelist, broadcaster and former scientist,and the founder of SciTalk - the free resource that helps writers to find out about modern science by meeting scientists.
Ann Lingard - who now lives on a small-holding in North-West Cumbria - is a novelist, broadcaster and former scientist,and the founder of SciTalk - the free resource that helps writers to find out about modern science by meeting scientists.
