Charlotte Runcie

Many of us holiday by the sea, read about it, and marvel at the paintings and music it inspires. Great men in history have defined themselves by great sea adventures, but where does that leave women? Can the sea be an adventure for those of us who aren’t sailors?

In Salt On Your Tongue Charlotte Runcie explores what the sea means to us, and particularly what it has meant to women through the ages. Navigating through ancient Greek myths, poetry, shipwrecks and Scottish folktales, she shows how the sea has inspired, fascinated and terrified us, and how she herself fell in love with the deep blue.

It is an ode to our oceans – to the sailors who brave their treacherous waters, to the women who lost their loved ones to the waves, to the creatures that dwell in their depths, to beach trawlers, swimmers, seabirds and mermaids. It’s a walk on the beach with Turner, with Shakespeare, with the Romantic Poets and with shanty-singers, and an investigation into how the untameable waves can help us understand what it means to be human.