A couple of months ago I bought a book called ‘Seashaken Houses’ by Tom Nancollas. I think my fascination with lighthouses, or the idea of lighthouses must have come from reading stories about them or hearing about them on ‘Children’s Hour’ on the radio. Certainly, one of the lost books from my childhood was about a young girl who, I think, went to stay with her grandparents who lived near a lighthouse – it was very exciting and involved smugglers, and I’ve never forgotten it – except for the title. I have started to write my version of it, ‘Peggy and the Lighthouse’.
Tom Nancollas is only quite young and has also written ‘The Ship Asunder: A Maritime History in Eleven Vessels’ about eleven vessels which came to grief around Britain’s coast… “from the swallowtail prow of a Bronze Age vessel to a stone ship moored at a Baroque quayside, each one illuminates a distinct phase of our adventures upon the waves; each brings us close to the people, places and vessels that made a maritime nation” (Amazon blurb)
Back to ‘Seashaken Houses’ – and what a great title! Thinking of my memories of lighthouses – they must have been from pictures in books because I don’t think I ever visited one as a child, I would surely have remembered. What I do remember is stories on Children’s Hour – maybe one was the Lighthouse of Alexandra, one of the seven wonders of the world. It was built in Ancient Egypt, during the reign of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (280–247 BC) – that’s over 2,300 years ago! Apparently it was at least 330 ft in overall height and for many centuries one of the tallest man-made structures in the world. It was badly damaged by three earthquakes between 956 and 1323 AD and left a ruin. (Thank you Wikipedia) I must also have read about this amazing construction – I read all sorts as a child!
Tom Nancollas is an extraordinary writer – quite lyrical in places and vividly conjures the men who built these structures in and by the sea, often in the most hazardous of conditions – absolutely no such thing as Heath and Safety three hundred years ago. Some of his descriptions are quite haunting, and inspirational in a way – not that I’m going to write about lighthouses (except in my children’s story about Peggy) but he has a way of becoming involved in the seascape and structures he describes which makes them vivid and memorable.
It’s not a book to be hurried, I have read the chapter on Eddystone I – 13 miles off Plymouth (Eddystone II is later) Bell Rock – 11 miles off Arbroath, and am about to commence Haulbowline in Castle Lough in Ireland. No doubt I will write more about this superb book when I have finished it.
My featured image is from Dungeness.
Lois Elsden 