How Britain's coastlines inspired Yorkshire writer Ian McMillan's latest book

The Barnsley poet, author and performer was going to use his latest tour to collect material. Then of course Covid happened and threw that plan to the winds.

“The plan was very specific,” he tells The Yorkshire Post.

“Whenever I did a gig anywhere in the country, I would get the train to the nearest bit of coast and do a little bit of walking.

“As it says in the book, the pandemic happened, lockdown happened and you couldn’t go.

“I really thought about what I was going to do and I said to the publisher I was going to do memories from the coast.”

That plan led to the writing and publication of My Sand Life, My Pebble Life: My Life Measured Out in Tides, out now from publisher Adlard Coles.

In it Ian visits his past, from childhood to recent days.

Each chapter is a specific memory, story or observation – all delivered in his unmistakable homespun poetic fashion. In the book he transports readers to coasts around the country, from Cleethorpes to Suffolk, from Northumberland to Blackpool, from the South West to the Isle of Skye. Each place has a different meaning and memory for Ian.

But it is in Yorkshire and places near to his native Barnsley where he still lives where the passion really stands out.

“Somewhere like Scarborough always feels majestic,” he says.

“It always feels like an epic place and that there is always more to it than you think. It is the kind of place where you can become bigger than yourself, and not just through eating fish and chips!

“It’s by having bigger ideas. I always think Scarborough is a town built on ideas.

“You have the Valley Gardens, that was an idea. The notion of Scarborough as a resort was an idea.

“The idea that working people can go there, relax and restore themselves. It is a place built on possibilities. And that’s what the coast is, because it reinvents itself twice a day because of the tide.”

It was in Scarborough where the book takes a darker turn. Ian relates how he and his wife visited in March 2020, just as the world was shutting down. It was an unsettling experience for them both.

“It did feel like things were shutting down. As I say in the book, you couldn’t find hand gel anywhere. And there was terrible wind blowing and I remember thinking it was very much a wind of change.

“But then there was hope. We went up to the castle and it was blowing a gale and my wife lost her glove. But when we came back out of the castle we found it!

“There is always the possibility of redemption in places like Scarborough. You go there feeling rough but when you get there it makes you feel better. That’s what the coast does. It seems to revitalise you.”

Writing the book certainly seems to have revitalised Ian.

He is equally enthusiastic about trips he took as a young boy as he is regarding those he undertook recently. It also all contributed to what he called the “circularity of memory”, with stories and occurrences long-forgotten suddenly resurfacing.

A large part of the book concerns the seasons. While the coast is most commonly visited during the warmer months, Ian was at pains to include the winter as well. For him, the changing of the seasons plays a massive role in the character and appearance of the places under discussion.

“The seasons are important because they massively change the town,” he said.

“I wanted to reflect the time scale in the book. In the middle there are some sonnets and they are based around the seasons. When you visit at different times of year it does look different.

It is a visual feast, almost like looking at a series of paintings. And I wanted to try and reflect that.

“In a sense it is easier to write about autumn and winter. In the summer, if it is sunny, it is quite hard to think of new ways of writing about that. And I was very conscious of writing about visual things. Autumn and winter are easier to write similes and images.”

The book not only takes in the physical characteristics of the towns dotting around Britain’s coastlines. Ian also spends a great deal of time focusing on the people there; not just the day trippers and holidaymakers, but also those who live there 365 days a year.

“Everybody who comes through is only there for a few days at most,” he said

“So you have to learn to be welcoming. In a seaside town that’s what the economy is based on. So it does make you a bit more of a tolerant person. Maybe that is why people retire to the coast, they think it is going to be like my holidays and that my life will be one long holiday.”

The pandemic ended international travel for many months meaning that, when restrictions permitted, a huge surge in demand for holidaying in the UK was witnessed, with the coast being the destination of choice for many.

I ask Ian if he thinks this demand will continue or if it will dissipate now that people can once again jet off abroad.

“I think it will,” he answers.

“Even though it is not that long ago, that whole period of the lockdown feels like a bad dream that happened 20 years ago. I am keen to get abroad again but I am also keen to see more of the UK. It would be nice to think we will go to more of these places. There’s plenty to do. The universal is in the local. We can find joy and reflections of ourselves in the places nearby.”

The latest book is one of many Ian has authored over the years but readers will be surprised to hear the process doesn’t come easily to him.

“The idea of writing a book scares me to death,” he said.

“I have written a few books before. I envy novelists who can write a 100,000 word book. But I like to write shorter bits. So I said to the publisher, ‘Right, I will write 50 1,000 word bits for this book and they seemed happy with that. So every day I would slog up to my little bedroom and just drag out another memory out of my brain.”

During our interview Ian McMillan is interrupted by the arrival of the postman, delivering copies of the My Sand Life, My Pebble Life: My Life Measured Out in Tides, at this point unpublished.

The moment gives the writer pause for reflection and it is absolutely obvious that the moment is a special one for him, as it must be for most published authors.

I ask how it feels to hold in your hands a book that had come from your brain and writings.

He says: “My grandson likes books and I showed him it.

“He asked ‘does this mean you’re a librarian?’ He couldn’t fathom that his grandad had written this book.

“But it was another version of me that wrote it. People change all the time.”

To finish I ask him what I acknowledge is a very difficult question, which coastal town in Britain means most to him. There is a long pause before the answer comes. “I like Scarborough,” he says.

“I think if there a favourite it would be Scarborough. It always gives more and makes you think about yourself. Towns can just lay down and die but somewhere like Scarborough will always try and reinvent itself while always retaining its unique properties.”

My Sand Life, My Pebble Life: My Life Measured Out in Tides, out now from publisher Adlard Coles.