Nature writer and poet Susan Richardson shares her enthusiasm for Atlantic grey seals, as she takes us on a fascinating journey around the coast of Britain, in search of those places Where the Seals Sing.
As graceful in the sea as they might seem clumsy on land, grey seals have visited our shores and enriched our culture for centuries. Yet we still know relatively little about them. As Susan Richardson journeys to the crags and crevices of the coast, she explores the mysteries and mythologies of seals, learning not just how they live but also how we ought to live with them.
Susan Richardson’s sense of wonder and the connection she feels to the natural world comes through in her poetry, which is where I first encountered her writing, as well as in her social media posts and workshops. It’s also clearly evident in her first long-form creative non-fiction, Where the Seals Sing, a book dedicated to her favourite pinniped, the Atlantic grey seal.
Susan Richardson remembers a childhood Christmas when she finds early comfort in a toy seal pup but her love of this semi-aquatic mammal takes some time to claim its true place in her heart. It’s not until later, after much time spent travelling and grieving the death of her mother, that she moves to a cliff-top cottage in West Wales to anchor herself among her itinerant, freelance career. Susan’s home lies within reach of coves where grey seals regularly haul up onto the Pembrokeshire beaches. They will help her to slow down and rediscover her equilibrium, before spurring her on to new discoveries.
With this stretch of coastline as her natural starting point, Susan Richardson sets out on a quest for more knowledge about her favourite pinnipeds. She travels to the Cornish Seal Sanctuary and from there traces a clockwise path around the British coastline eventually ending in Norfolk before heading home to Pembrokeshire. She’ll visit other beaches and clifftops, islands and estuaries and sanctuaries to uncover a wealth of information, both facts and folklore, while tracing seal movements and behaviours and chronicling how these are shifting due to their proximity to us and our often obtrusive attention.
Susan Richardson’s love for these creatures radiates off the page and I couldn’t help but be drawn into her deep dive into the world of Atlantic grey seals. She is a curious and engaging companion, an observant and knowledgeable guide, and she is both playful and precise in her use of language throughout Where the Seals Sings. She imparts her discoveries much as any good friend does when they feel passionately about something, with good humour, sensitivity, and equal amounts of frustration and joy. I felt these, too, while also discovering so much I didn’t know about these mammals.
Meanwhile, Susan Richardson and her beloved Dad navigate their way through his dementia diagnosis and the resulting adaptations this demands of both of them. It’s not easy to read these sections, as I’m currently going through this with my Mum, but here again you can feel the warmth, love and affection Susan Richardson and her father have for each other. They shared a love of nature, walking and wildlife and you can sense how much her updates about her seal quest mean to him, while also helping to keep her afloat as they go through this transition.
When the Seals Sing is a stirring story about one woman’s love of the Atlantic grey seal and its natural habitats, together with a moving and compassionate story about a father and daughter’s love for each other. Susan Richardson conjures up the seal and wider natural world with language which is both brutally sharp and honest but also deeply lyrical in its intensity and beauty. She sings her love for both seals and her Dad in this book and my squirrel-loving heart was utterly captivated by it.
Where The Seals Sing by Susan Richardson is published by William Collins, an imprint of Harper Collins. It is available as an audiobook, ebook and in hardback and paperback. You can find it at Amazon UK (affiliate link), Bookshop.org (affiliate link) or Waterstones. You can visit Susan Richardson’s Author Website or Facebook Page, or follow her on Instagram or on Bluesky or on X.
*GIVEAWAY*
I have a paperback of Where the Seals Sing by Susan Richardson to give away. Leave a comment below to be in with the chance of winning it! The squirrels will pick a winner on Friday 27th March.
This sounds lovely. I’ve been to the seal sanctuary in Cornwall and have loved watching seals on holidays in Northumberland and the Outer Hebrides. I’d be delighted to win a copy!
Oh wow. How wonderful. Then it sounds ideal for you. Best of luck!
This sound to be the kind of read I would so much enjoy. I tend not to be a winner in these kinds of situation, but I’m keen to read this anyway. In fact I’ve just reserved it at the library! But I’d still like to enter the giveaway please ….
I wish you the best of luck in the draw, Margaret, and you never know how these things work out, especially when the squirrels are choosing the winner!
We did a walking holiday many years (actually decades ago) and managed to see some seals as we walked along the cliff tops.
This sounds a fabulous book Kath
Seeing seals always feels as if you’re getting a bonus treat you weren’t expecting. I’m sure you would enjoy Susan’s book.
Well, as a Pembrokeshire resident for over ten years I recall many visits to the coastal path along the northwest coastline and seeing seal pups and their dams resting in on a relatively secluded beach: they seemed entirely in their element and yet so vulnerable. While now in Bannau Brycheiniog I have a distance to go to get to the seaside, my sense do tingle whenever I think of such scenes! I’m sorry both Richardson and you are going through similar experiences with parents, but I hope that time spent in natural surroundings provide for them some healing and balm for both body and mind.
I think you’re so right that the seals “seemed entirely in their element and yet so vulnerable.” You certainly have a knack for choosing stunning parts of our country in which to live. And thanks for your thoughts, Chris – we definitely do find some relief in the great outdoors of ours.
This sounds lovely and very different from what I usually read. I’d love to enter the giveaway if it is open internationally.
Congratulations to Margaret on winning the paperback of Where the Seals Sing! We hope you enjoy it as much as we did.