Iconic landscape provides literary inspiration

It is this iconic landscape that provides the inspiration for a new book, called Edge of Heaven: The Yorkshire Coast – Personal Reflections from our Finest Writers.

Part guide and part memoir, it features a collection of pieces written by some of our best known figures, including Ian McMillan, Margaret Drabble, Roy Hattersley and Ian Clayton.

Alan Plater’s essay on Hull, his childhood home, is given added poignancy because it was the last piece he wrote before his death from cancer in June last year.

Between them the writers cover the entire stretch of Yorkshire’s coast from Redcar to Hull and feature everything from childhood memories of family holidays, to a fictional romance based in Scarborough and tales of a lost port near Staithes.

RJ Ellory writes about the appeal of Whitby as a place “where history breathes” and exists happily alongside the present. Ms Drabble, on the other hand, goes back to her treasured childhood memories of holidaying in Filey and learning to swim in the icy North Sea. Mr McMillan has written a poem in homage to the coast, while Martin Wainwright takes the reader on a journey peppered with interesting facts and stories.

The book, which is published by Great Northern Books and supported by Welcome to Yorkshire, includes more than 150 images including paintings and archive photographs.

Speaking at the Great Yorkshire Show yesterday, legendary Dales figure WR Mitchell, who writes about the coast’s varied bird life and several of its fishing villages in the book, explained the allure of Yorkshire’s coast.

He said: “It is part of Yorkshire, although traditionally it has been on the rim of Yorkshire which has given it a character all of its own, based on fishing and smuggling. This slither of land has a fascinating history that makes it truly unique.”

Edge of Heaven: The Yorkshire Coast – Personal Reflections from our Finest Writers is out now priced £19.99.