THE DRAW OF THE SEA
2022 (Aurum Press)
WINNER OF THE ROGER DEAKIN AWARD
The ocean fires our imagination, provides joy, solace and play but also wields immense destructive power. The Draw of the Sea explores communities whose lives revolve around the coasts of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. In the specifics of these livelihoods and their rich histories and traditions, Wyl Menmuir captures the universal human connection to the sea.Into this seductive tapestry, Wyl weaves the story of how the sea has beckoned, consoled and restored him. Funny and uplifting, personal and profound, The Draw of the Sea will delight anyone familiar with the intimate and inescapable pull of the sea.
Funny and uplifting, personal and profound, The Draw of the Sea will delight anyone familiar with the intimate and powerful pull of the sea. It’s the must-read of summer 2022.
An extract from the audiobook
An extract from Chapter 1 of The Draw of The Sea, read by the author.
Praise for The Draw of The Sea
There is a stillness, a patience and a clear kind of beauty to every sentence Wyl Menmuir writes. To read The Draw of the Sea is not unlike staring out at the water for some time; it works upon you gradually, leaving you, at last, with a feeling of reverence and awe at all you have witnessed.
Lamorna Ash, author of Dark, Salt, Clear
Sometimes a book comes along that could have been written just for you. This is how I feel about The Draw of The Sea, a work of enormous grace and humanity that pulls us to the deep and gently returns us home.
Emma Stonex, author of The Lamplighters
The Draw of the Sea is a richly satisfying book. Wyl Menmuir dives deep into a world of sea-souls – swimmers and surfers and sailors, birders, beachcombers and rowers – and with meditative charm addresses that perennial, unanswerable question: what makes us so oblivious to danger and discomfort and pulls us again and again to the water?
Philip Marsden, author of The Levelling Sea and The Summer Isles
The Draw of the Sea is immersive and inviting and filled with people who for all sorts of reasons go to the sea, and reading it will make you want to go with them. Menmuir weaves together thoughtful portraits of people he's spent time with, the shell seekers and wave riders, swimmers, sailors, fishers and divers. He brilliantly captures the rich mix of feelings that come with being by, on and under the sea. My own love of the sea, and the Cornish coast in particular, is deepened by seeing it through the eyes of so many others.
Helen Scales, author of The Brilliant Abyss and What a Shell Can Tell
A beautiful portrait of lives shaped by the swell of ocean and tide - a powerful salt-thread of connection.
Raynor Winn, author of The Salt Path
‘Light and wonder illuminate the pages of this magical book, a fitting tribute to the majesty and mystery of the sea’