Today, World Book Day 2024, the paperback edition of my ‘Solway book’ is published. The hardback came out in 2020, during lockdown – which was not the best time to be bringing a book into the world! But despite that, I have received many, many comments – emails, contacts through the F&S website, letters, and invitations to speak about the book – from readers who have enjoyed finding out more about this little-known, little-researched and crooked finger of estuary and sea that divides and unites Scotland and England.

So, I invite you too to find out more, and to enjoy reading and dipping into The Fresh and the Salt: from geological timescales to present-day (and, perhaps, the future); from aerial view to the microscopic; from miners and navvies to ships’-pilots; from the silk-lined burrows of mudshrimps to fossil reptile footprints and the colours of sphagnum mosses. And then come and visit this beautiful and unusual area of NW England and SW Scotland, to enjoy its sweeping shores, saltmarshes, raised bogs and sculpted sandstone.

There are many reviews of the book, and extra material – photos, videos and more – on the related website. And the book can be obtained from any bookshop, or through various online shops.