With a contribution from Martyn Howe offering e-book copies of his new book, The Coast is Our Compass, in which he describes a personal pilgrimage to walk the coast of England along what is now officially the King Charles III National Coastal Path, as a monthly prize, our Shorelines project has had a new lift.

An entry received in the previous month is randomly chosen to win a copy, and already we have two recipients of e-book editions, with three more lucky winners to look forward to – you could be one of them.

The opening salvo came in March with a story by Maartje Scheltens called Joss Bay, and in April photographer and poet Julius Smit‘s Shore Score was picked.

Maartje tells us that it was a bright blustery day on the North Foreland, walking from Margate to Broadstairs on the King Charles III path that inspired her to write Joss Bay:

“Combing the beach, staring down hard at the white noise of sand shells and stones whelk-egg seaweed rocks mermaids purses repeating in groups, my eyes dart up – down – far – close faster than my stiff neck can keep up

I step on white molars, worn down tops of cliffs just centimetres proud of the claggy sand, travelling ahead in time and tide of the cliffs towering above. The world feels upside down, fore land / back sea

the chalk offers footholds but as I hop between its jigsaw pieces my vision blurs and the movement of wave, the peering through pebble and weed, the sharp pull of wind bring a second migraine aura of the day, the flicker darting through my eyes into my head, a play of light at first, like sun on waves, then growing dots that join and darken my sight

I grapple for pills, water bottle, loosen the bag straps that pinch my shoulders, look around – the tide is rising and the beach shrinking. I must climb arduously up the steps to the top of the cliff where the squat lighthouse is further away than it seemed and after the exposed hillside I find the white tower is surrounded by suburbs, the coast path winds into a ‘private estate’ plastered in warning signs and so I plod along the road until I reach a bench and sit out of sight of the sea, close my eyes and wait.“


Julius sought out a spot he knows well not far from his home in Eastbourne to write his poem Shore Score “the rocky and pebbly shore at Birling Gap, a National Trust coastal site nestling between Exceat and Eastbourne in East Sussex, UK. Out of the tourist season, the area takes on an almost wild, isolated existence, ripe for exploration and contemplation.”

Sway down into the current
reach between seaweed,
crack bladderwrack:
forage in a field of wrinkles,
as if mapping out markers.

The sand has been shelved,
corrugated in upended layers.
There's a push into sea spray: 
those loose specks spooling,
shifting in a game of bruising.

You finger rub the rock pool, 
its pebble dance scoured walls
smoothed in a history of waves.
The sand grains spin, score you
in their deep yielding storms.

It is a free entry to the Shorelines initiative, just put pen to paper to write a poem or story of 250 words or under. You can add an image and a recital, if you wish. Who knows, you might be next month’s winner. Enter here.

Penny Walker, aptly named, is our current story writer in residence, she too is walking the King Charles III coast path. Penny is running Sole Erosion, an online creative writing workshop on Monday 8 June – details here.

Photo by Luca Upper on Unsplash