Or Land the Sea
Michael McKimm, the Society’s User Services Librarian and an award-winning poet, has collaborated with artist and photographer Julie Cuthbert on a new book. Or Land the Sea takes the reader on a journey around important coastal geosites through Michael’s poems and Julie’s striking photographs. With over fifty full colour photographs, and exploring themes such as deep time, geotourism, coastal erosion, and the links between geology and biodiversity, the resulting photo-poems are a compelling record of the unique and varied geology of the coastline, its flora and fauna, and the people who live alongside it.
Guided by the Society’s 100 Great Geosites initiative (www.geolsoc.org.uk/100geosites), chosen by the public in 2014, Julie travelled the length and breadth of the country, documenting the coastline with her camera, and sending the photographs to Michael to inspire his poems. Starting at Hoy’s Old Man, Orkney, the photo-poems circumnavigate the coast, capturing places such as: Flamborough Head, Yorkshire; Botany Bay, Kent; Kynance Cove, Cornwall; and the submerged forest at Borth, Ceredigion.
Or Land the Sea includes an introductory essay by historian Jerry Brotton, author of A History of the World in Twelve Maps (2012) and Four Points of the Compass (2024). Or Land the Sea is Michael’s third geology-focused book, following Fossil Sunshine (2013) and the anthology MAP: Poems After William Smith’s Geological Map of 1815 (2015).
To order a copy of the book, please visit: www.geolsoc.org.uk/MPBSEA
For further information, please visit Michael’s website at: www.michaelmckimm.co.uk/OrLandTheSea
