Changes

|title=Strands: A Year of Discoveries on the Beach

|author=Jean Sprackland

|publisher=Jonathan Cape

|date=May 2012

|website=http://www.jeansprackland.com/

|summary=Wandering the same stretch of beach over a whole year provokes a series of essays that range from the lyrical to the investigative. Easy to read, full of quirky information and maybe just a gentle call to wider appreciation of what is right there on our doorstep, and what we're doing to it.

}}

Sprackland is a poet, and a good one. At least I assume she's a good poet – I rarely read poetry these days. Her first collection was shortlisted for the Forward Prize, her second was shortlisted for the T S Eliot Prize and the Whitbread Poetry Award and her third won the 2007 Costa Poetry Award. Unless all of the panels harbour the same judges, that's a lot of people thinking this is someone special.