WINNER OF THE HOLYER AN GO AWARD 2023
Wyl Menmuir’s The Draw of the Sea is a beautifully written and deeply moving portrait of the sea and the people whose livelihoods revolve around it, examining the ephemeral but universal pull the sea holds over the human imagination. Since the earliest stages of human development,
the sea has fascinated and entranced us. It feeds us,
sustaining communities and providing livelihood, but it also holds
immense destructive power that threatens to destroy all we have created.
It connects us to faraway places, offering the
promise of new lands and voyages of discovery, but also shapes our borders, carving divisions between landmasses and eroding the very ground beneath our feet. In this
lyrical meditation on what it is that draws us to the waters' edge, author Wyl Menmuir tells the stories of the
people whose lives revolve around the coastline and all it has to offer. In twelve interlinked chapters, Menmuir explores the lives of
local fishermen steeped in the rich traditions of a fishing community, the beachcombers who wander the shores in search of the varied objects that wash ashore and the stories they tell, and all number of others who have made their lives around the sea.
In the specifics of these livelihoods and their rich histories and traditions, Wyl Menmuir captures the universal human connection to the ocean’s edge. Into this seductive tapestry Wyl weaves the story of
how the sea has beckoned, consoled and restored him.
The Draw of the Sea is a meaningful and moving work into
how we interact with the environment around us and how it comes to
shape the course of our lives. As unmissable as it is compelling, as profound as it is personal, this
must-read book will delight anyone familiar with the intimate and powerful pull which the sea holds over us.
Wyl Menmuir’s The Draw of the Sea is a book about the fisherman, surfers, swimmers, beachcombers, conservationists, sailors and boatbuilders who make their living on the Cornish Coast.
The Draw of the Sea will evoke both the specific and the universal appeal of the sea in the same way that James Rebanks evoked both the specific and the universal in The Shepherd’s Life: A Tale of the Lake District.
