Lucy Wood - The Sing of the Shore

Contents Cover Title Page Copyright Dedication Epigraph Home Scar The Dishes Dreckly One Foot in Front of the Other Way the Hell Out Salthouse Flotsam, Jetsam, Lagan, Derelict The Life of a Wave Standing Water A Year of Buryings Cables The Sing of the Shore By-the-Wind Sailors Acknowledgements Also by Lucy Wood About the Author About the Publisher

4th Estate

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.4thestate.co.uk

This eBook first published in Great Britain by 4th Estate 2018

Copyright © Lucy Wood 2018

Cover design by Jo Walker

Kind permission to reproduce an excerpt from A Glossary of Cornish Sea-Words by Robert Morton Nance (1963) granted by the Federation of Old Cornwall Societies.

Lucy Wood asserts her moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008193409

Ebook Edition © April 2018 ISBN: 9780008193423

Version: 2018-12-05

For Ellie and Georgina

The sing of the shore:

the sound made by waves breaking, varying with the nature of the shore – sand, pebbles, boulders, scarped cliff, or reefs and ledges of rock – and thus giving the experienced fisherman an indication of his position when fog or darkness make land invisible

– From A Glossary of Cornish Sea-Words by Robert Morton Nance

Cover

Title Page Contents Cover Title Page Copyright Dedication Epigraph Home Scar The Dishes Dreckly One Foot in Front of the Other Way the Hell Out Salthouse Flotsam, Jetsam, Lagan, Derelict The Life of a Wave Standing Water A Year of Buryings Cables The Sing of the Shore By-the-Wind Sailors Acknowledgements Also by Lucy Wood About the Author About the Publisher

Copyright Copyright Contents Cover Title Page Copyright Dedication Epigraph Home Scar The Dishes Dreckly One Foot in Front of the Other Way the Hell Out Salthouse Flotsam, Jetsam, Lagan, Derelict The Life of a Wave Standing Water A Year of Buryings Cables The Sing of the Shore By-the-Wind Sailors Acknowledgements Also by Lucy Wood About the Author About the Publisher 4th Estate An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF www.4thestate.co.uk This eBook first published in Great Britain by 4th Estate 2018 Copyright © Lucy Wood 2018 Cover design by Jo Walker Kind permission to reproduce an excerpt from A Glossary of Cornish Sea-Words by Robert Morton Nance (1963) granted by the Federation of Old Cornwall Societies. Lucy Wood asserts her moral right to be identified as the author of this work A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins. Source ISBN: 9780008193409 Ebook Edition © April 2018 ISBN: 9780008193423 Version: 2018-12-05

Dedication Dedication Contents Cover Title Page Copyright Dedication Epigraph Home Scar The Dishes Dreckly One Foot in Front of the Other Way the Hell Out Salthouse Flotsam, Jetsam, Lagan, Derelict The Life of a Wave Standing Water A Year of Buryings Cables The Sing of the Shore By-the-Wind Sailors Acknowledgements Also by Lucy Wood About the Author About the Publisher For Ellie and Georgina

Epigraph Epigraph Contents Cover Title Page Copyright Dedication Epigraph Home Scar The Dishes Dreckly One Foot in Front of the Other Way the Hell Out Salthouse Flotsam, Jetsam, Lagan, Derelict The Life of a Wave Standing Water A Year of Buryings Cables The Sing of the Shore By-the-Wind Sailors Acknowledgements Also by Lucy Wood About the Author About the Publisher The sing of the shore: the sound made by waves breaking, varying with the nature of the shore – sand, pebbles, boulders, scarped cliff, or reefs and ledges of rock – and thus giving the experienced fisherman an indication of his position when fog or darkness make land invisible – From A Glossary of Cornish Sea-Words by Robert Morton Nance

Home Scar

The Dishes

Dreckly

One Foot in Front of the Other

Way the Hell Out

Salthouse

Flotsam, Jetsam, Lagan, Derelict

The Life of a Wave

Standing Water

A Year of Buryings

Cables

The Sing of the Shore

By-the-Wind Sailors

Acknowledgements

Also by Lucy Wood

About the Author

About the Publisher

The sea was what his father called a cowshitty sea – a brownish, algae green, that meant it would be good fishing, even though it sounded like it would be bad fishing. But when he said something was bullshit, like the landlord raising the rent, or not fixing the oven, or mentioning that he might put the flat up for sale, then that was definitely something bad. Except when he was in the pub, in a group, and then it could be said and the laughter would be low and raucous as seagulls. To Ivor, it was all in the same murky category as words like restive – Ivor is a very restive boy, his teacher would say into the phone, is everything alright? Apparently that didn’t mean that he was calm and easy.

The beach had been scraped and dragged by the winter storms. It was almost March now and where there had been sand there were stones, and where there had been stones there were channels that kept their water long after the tide had gone back out.