Sea and shore Cornwall : common and curious findings

WINNER HOLYER AN GOF PUBLISHERS' AWARD 2014. A beautiful collection of photographs, discoveries and natural history that is by turn atmospheric, quirky and fascinating.

Many of the photographs are glimpses of the mercurial sea around Cornwall's shores, in all its moods: from sunlit shallows to exhilarating waves powering into cliffs. Woven in with these is Lisa's haphazard museum of finds - the often strangely beautiful things she has picked up on Cornwall's shores, along with any curious or interesting findings from her subsequent research.

There are wonderful names - by-the-wind sailors, the warty venus - and some extraordinary creatures in this inter-tidal world, their lives at times violent, charming and bizarre. There is much of the evocative and often mysterious language of the sea, with some beautiful old Cornish words: many portents of bad weather - the sun-dog, graving clouds - and a telling number to describe a fine misty drizzle.

There is, too, the odd maritime legend, and some wonderful oceanographers' research: a science of washed up trainers, bath ducks and fishermen's boots lost at sea.