Beach notes

Throughout the writing of The Sea Between Us I spent a lot of time on Cornish beaches (I know, it's a hard life…). I've come to know and love Porthmeor in St Ives, with its swathes of surfers and iconic curvature of the Tate. The serene and sandy stretches of Sennen Cove, its shoreline puddled with jellyfish as the big waves come crashing in. The scrabbling, scrambling descent to Pedn Vounder, a dreamlike place, and easy to miss at high tide. Last week I took my little son to Ness Cove, one of my favourite Devon beaches. Back in 2011 I was at Ness Cove when I heard I had my first ever book deal - I ran into the sea, soaking my jeans, kicking through the shallows with unbridled joy. Whenever I've been back since I think of that day and, well, glow. The beach was special enough before - with its damp, dark smugglers' tunnel, and the startling silver of the sea as you step out into the light, it was always a childhood favourite - but now it's one of my most beloved places on earth. Last week CJ built his first sandcastles there, and scampered on the sand. We also, unwittingly, staged a recreation of the book jacket design for The Sea Between Us...

Continuing the oceanic theme, I've been reading a gem of a book called Gift From The Sea by American author Anne Morrow Lindbergh, written in 1955. It elegantly and inspiringly argues the need for solitude, and suggests the seashore is the very best place to find it. Here's to that. Whenever I take myself off on writing retreats I head for water - the sense of perpetual motion is energising, I never feel stuck by the sea...

… and IN the sea is even better, as my new sweatshirt attests...

On the subject of quotes, I'm lucky that some fabulous authors have read early copies of The Sea Between Us and even luckier that they've said some very generous things about it. You can read what Lucy Clarke, Tiffany Murray, Hannah Beckerman and Liz Fenwick had to say HERE. It's always a nervous feeling, waiting for a new novel to come out, and knowing these fellow book writers and book lovers have enjoyed it is cheering indeed. My thanks to them.

This post feels a little random - a note here, a picture there - but that's how it is by the sea. Your mind bobs and drifts. You gaze at the endless horizon, hypnotised by the infinite sense of promise, then are brought back to the minutiae, the feel of a shell in the palm of your hand, the glistening of a pebble, the shifting of sand between your toes as the tide rushes out. You lie back and watch the seagulls wheel. Then you charge to the water and blitz beneath the waves. It's serenity and it's exhilaration. Aimlessness and focus. Days like these, with just a few weeks to go before publication, feeling that particular blend of anticipation and angst, there's no place I'd rather be. I hope you make it to the beach this summer. I hope, as Emerson says, and whose words I chose to open The Sea Between Us, you let yourself 'live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air's salubrity'.