Where The Seals Sing

Susan Richardson has always been entranced by seals; they seem to have surfaced at key junctions throughout her life, comforting her as an anxious child, bringing joy as she began to spread her wings as a writer and helping her to find her way after the loss of her mother. Now she sets out to trace the rhythm of their lives, travelling the coasts clockwise from Cornwall to Norfolk, in line with the autumn pupping season. Along the way she explores the myths surrounding seals, from their shapeshifting selkie skins to the claims that they decimate fish populations, and she discovers that the greatest dangers they face come from co-existing with us.
Brimming with vivid descriptions of the natural world, Where the Seals Sing is a lyrical tale of memory, rescue and rehabilitation. While loss, both personal and ecological, is a recurring theme, the human-seal connection that flows through the story is stirring and uplifting.

About the Author

At the age of six, when asked the usual question about what she wanted to be when she grew up, Susan Richardson replied, 'I want to travel round the world and write about animals.' She is the author of four collections of poetry, the most recent of which, Words the Turtle Taught Me, themed around endangered ocean species, emerged from her residency with the Marine Conservation Society and was shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award. In addition to her ongoing writing residency with the British Animal Studies Network, facilitated by the University of Strathclyde, she has shared her work on BBC Two and Radio 3, and enjoyed a four-year stint as one of the poet-performers on Radio 4's Saturday Live.