My Sand Life, My Pebble Life

My Sand Life, My Pebble Life is a new book focusing on one of poet Ian McMillan's great loves – the sea – and the places and memories that have shaped who he is today.

Comprised of a series of perfectly crafted, evocative, funny and nostalgic essays, Ian revisits the coastal places that stamped themselves on his childhood: Cleethorpes, where a bird once landed on the seat next to him as the miniature railway chugged along, California in Suffolk where his Auntie accidentally put her hand through the window of a caravan and bled spectacularly, Minehead in Somerset where his dad kept stalling the car and the family limped across the map and took all day to get avery short distance, Broadford on the Isle of Skye where midges descended on Ian like an apocalyptic umbrella.

This book will transport you from your everyday life to a coast rich in memories of childhood and times spent by the sea.

About the Author

Ian McMillan is a poet, journalist, playwright and broadcaster. He's written comedy for radio and plays for the stage, and worked extensively in radio and television, currently presenting The Verb on Radio 3 and appearing as a regular on BBC's Coast, BBC Breakfast, Countryfile, Pick of the Week, Last Word and The Arts Show. With the Times Education Supplement describing him as 'the Shirley Bassey of performance poetry' and Andy Kershaw saying 'he's inching towards the status of a National Treasure', he's been a castaway on Desert Island Discs, poet in residence for The Academy of Urbanism and Barnsley FC, resident poet at English National Opera and UK Trade & Investment poet, Yorkshire TV's Investigative Poet and Humberside Police's Beat poet.