Description

Ebb and Flow - Crovie Then and Now is a two-part poetry collection that carries the voice of a small Scottish fishing village across generations, shaped by the rhythms of the sea and the lives bound to it.

The first half reaches back to a time before the herring boom, drawing on the imagined voices of fishermen, wives, and children to recreate a way of life built on labour, weather, and community. Nets are hauled, lines are set, and days are measured not by clocks but by tide and light. These poems echo with the textures of salt, stone, and sea-spray, offering a grounded and immersive sense of the past without romanticising its hardships.

The second half turns toward the present-day village, where the pace has shifted but the pull of place remains just as strong. Here, the poems explore themes of love, loss, memory, and belonging, shaped by personal experience and the changing realities of coastal life. The voices are quieter, more intimate, but still rooted in the same narrow streets and open horizons.

Together, the two sections mirror the movement of the tide itself, drawing out the contrasts and continuities between then and now. The collection reflects on what has been lost, what has endured, and what continues to evolve, capturing the fragile balance between history and modern life in a place that refuses to be forgotten.

Written from within the village itself and with a deep affection for people, heritage, and landscape, Ebb and Flow is both a tribute and a record, a book about carrying stories forward, holding on to identity, and finding meaning in the steady, stubborn rhythm of life lived at the edge of the sea.