The Pebbles on the Beach, Clarence Ellis
Clarence Ellis’ The Pebbles on the Beach is a book about “the simple pleasure of pebble spotting” and takes the reader through a charming guide of how to identify different pebbles, as well as accessibly describing how they’re formed and end up at our feet on the shore.
If you’re lucky enough to have access to a beach, just look down and you can lose hours finding different colours, shapes, textures and patterns — some pebbles make it a wonder that we even bother making art when land and water are doing all of this already.
This copy was picked up from Wemyss Bay Station Bookshop after a trip to the Isle of Bute. With pockets full of pebbles it seemed silly not to add it to the library there and then.
Clarence Ellis was born in Holyhead in 1889. He studied history at Bangor University and served on the Western Front before beginning a career in further education. His private passion was pebble collecting, and The Pebbles on the Beach was first published in 1954. This 2018 edition was published by Faber & Faber and beautifully illustrated by Eleanor Crow. Readers to share their own pebble finds using the hashtag #PebblesOnTheBeach — with that in mind, Faber & Faber include the following message on the book’s inside cover:
Our understanding of geological processes has changed over the last sixty years, but that does not stop this book from being enjoyable. Please open out the book jacket for your pebble-spotter’s guide. The illustrations was based on the author’s collection. Do think carefully about what you bring home. It is illegal to remove pebbles from sites of special scientific interest, such as Chesil Beach, so please check local rules (these are usually posted in the car park or other points of access).
Enjoy pebble hunting!
