The Fresh & the Salt – Ann Lingard author talk

Author Ann Lingard talks to Kirkgate Artistic Director about her fascinating new book, and the rich and complex environment that is the Solway Firth. And there’ll be an opportunity for you to put your questions to Ann in this online event.

The Fresh and the Salt is a story of the Solway Firth – its origins and ever-changing margins. This is a story that has influenced many other stories: of animals and plants and micro-organisms – and of the humans that occupy the edges.

The book’s perspective ranges from satellite views to the microscopic, even the molecular.

Scientist and author Ann Lingard knows the area intimately, and has led shore walks near Allonby. (https://solwayshorewalker.wordpress.com) She says “Sometimes I have been actively involved with the Firth – wading across it, slithering along its mudflats, walking far out to mussel-beds on a low Spring tide, flying over it, bouncing over its waves in boats – and at other times I have been an observer and listener (and I’m so grateful to all those who have shared their knowledge and stories with me over the years).”

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 there.

‘a portrait of this nation-cleaving water that is as broad and deep as the estuary itself. A wonderful addition to the literature of place.’  MARK COCKER, author and naturalist

Live on Zoom. FREE event – but please book a place  – you will be sent a link to join.

In association with The New Bookshop – get your copy here  

Ann Lingard spent her childhood in Cornwall. She studied Zoology, and did a PhD in parasite physiology at Cambridge, then went on to lecture and run a research group at the University of Glasgow.

She left academia to write and broadcast, and has subsequently published six novels and several short stories, and has written and spoken a great deal about the countryside and shore. She and her husband now manage a smallholding in North-west Cumbria, within sight of the Solway Firth. www.eliotandentropy.wordpress.com