Hannah Stowe

The seas cover over two thirds of our planet and yet most of us live our lives on land, creatures of a different element, at once fascinated and terrified by the beauty and power of these great bodies of water. There are some, though, who go to sea, who get to know its many moods — the tranquil and mirror-like, the raging and ripple-swept — and who bring back with them their stories of wonder and warning. Hannah Stowe is one such sea-goer and one such storyteller. Having been raised at the tide’s edge on the Pembrokeshire coast, falling asleep to the sweep of the lighthouse beam, Hannah Stowe went to see straight after school and has worked on and studied the sea in depth.

Drawing on her expertise as a marine biologist and sailor, and her experiences in the North Sea, the North Atlantic, the Mediterranean, the North Sea, the Celtic Sea, and the Caribbean, Move Like Water is an exploration of the human relationship with the sea, the powerful impression it has made on our culture, and the terrible damage we have inflicted upon its ecosystems. In shimmering, fluid prose, Stowe introduces us to six keystone marine creatures – the firecrow, sperm whale, the albatross, he humpback whale, the shearwater, and the barnacle – encouraging us to fall in love with the seas as she has, to appreciate their majesty and their vulnerability. This is a heartfelt hymn to the sea and an unforgettable introduction to one of the most gifted nature writers of the new generation.