Charlotte Runcie has always felt pulled to the sea,lured by its soothing,calming qualities but also enlivened and inspired by its salty wildness.
When she loses her beloved grandmother,and becomes pregnant with her first child,she feels its pull even more intensely. In Salt On Your Tongue Charlotte explores what the sea means to us,and particularly what it has meant to women through the ages.
This book is a walk on the beach with Turner,with Shakespeare,with the Romantic Poets and shanty-singers. It's an ode to our oceans - to the sailors who brave their treacherous waters,to the women who lost their loved ones to the waves,to the creatures that dwell in their depths,to beach combers,swimmers,seabirds and mermaids. In mesmerising prose,Charlotte Runcie shows how the sea has inspired,fascinated and terrified us,and how she herself fell in love with the deep blue.
Navigating through ancient Greek myths,poetry,shipwrecks and Scottish folktales,Salt On Your Tongue is about how the wild untameable waves can help us understand what it means to be human.
Publisher: Canongate BooksISBN: 9781786891211Number of pages: 384Weight: 256 gDimensions: 198 x 129 x 23 mmEdition: Main
MEDIA REVIEWS
'This motherhood memoir-cum-nature journal about the connection between women and the sea is bracing and poetic...Throughout,her prose is defined by cool confidence and unshowy clarity,allowing its more poetic observations,of which there are plenty,to glimmer like glass pebbles...Just like her favourite kind of blustery beach,it's strewn with pocketable treasures'- The Observer
'Hauntingly captures the whispered wave and wash of the sea and leaves you craving salt,sand,wind,fish n'chips and mushy peas.'- The Times
A very beautiful book about myth and motherhood - a memoir that intertwines effortlessly and poetically with tales of the sea. Salt On Your Tongue has a rare magic to it.'- Sophie Mackintosh,author ofThe Water Cure
'A wise and wonderful book,charting intensely personal moments against the constant yet ever-changing sea. A story of birth,loss,memory and motherhood,spliced with vivid observations of the natural world and collected myth,lore and legend,Charlotte Runcie's voice is by turns practical and poetic,objective and beguiling. An utterly immersive read.'- Jess Kidd,author of Himself and The Hoarder
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