Firths and estuaries are liminal places, where land meets sea and tides meet freshwater. Their unique ecosystems support a huge range of marine and other wildlife: human activity too is profoundly influenced by their waters and shores.
The Solway Firth – the crooked finger of water that both unites and divides Scotland and England – is a beautiful yet unpredictable place and one of the least-industrialised natural large estuaries in Europe. Its history, geology and turbulent character have long affected the way its inhabitants, both human and non-human, have learnt to live along and within its ever-changing margins.
Ann Lingard spent her childhood in Cornwall. After living and working in various places including Cambridge, Glasgow, Oxford and Oregon, she and her husband now manage a smallholding in North-west Cumbria, within sight of the Solway Firth. Having left academia and research to write and broadcast, she has subsequently written and spoken a great deal about the countryside and shore.
"Beautiful, intensely visual prose, born from deep intimacy with subtle borderlands: land and sea, England and Scotland, people and environments. Lingard expertly probes the margins for their hidden riches"
– David Gange, author of The Frayed Atlantic Edge
"Like a hungry gull, Ann Lingard explores her beloved Solway shoreline for every living detail that catches her eye. In so doing she has created a portrait of this nation-cleaving water that is as broad and deep as the estuary itself"
– Mark Cocker, author and naturalist