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From the lonely heights of mountains to the womblike depths of caves, stone has always drawn us in. In The Spirit of Stone, Wyl Menmuir explores the many ways in which rock and earth form part of our identities, histories, and futures. Across Britain and Ireland, rock is everywhere beneath our feet, shaping not only our landscapes but also our imaginations and the ways we live together.
Moving across these lands, Wyl Menmuir’s essays combine
travelogue,
social history, and
memoir, bringing together
interviews,
folklore, and
personal encounters with the landscapes themselves.
From sacred monuments to modern sculpture, this book reveals how stone grounds us, challenges us, and inspires us, such as:
- Mountains and caves as places of pilgrimage, danger, refuge, and wonder.
- Ancient pathways andstone circles that leave traces of our ancestors written into the land.
- Marks and monuments, from Neolithic carvings to contemporary sculpture, art that endures across centuries.
- Everyday stone, for example the quarries, buildings and raw materials that underpin our daily lives.
The Spirit of Stone follows on from
The Draw of the Sea and
The Heart of the Woods, completing a trilogy of
explorations into our relationship with place. Where the first two books took readers to the water’s edge and into the forest, this book journeys into the landscapes of rock, stone and earth, reflecting on how they continue to define us.
Resonant with the work of Robert Macfarlane, Kathleen Jamie and Peter Ross, yet strikingly original in its breadth and vision,
The Spirit of Stone is a
profound meditation on belonging, endurance, and our shared human story written in stone.
About the author
Wyl Menmuir is a novelist, editor and literary consultant based in Cornwall. He is the author of the Man-Booker nominated novel and Observer Best Fiction of the year pick,The Many, and Fox Fires. His short fiction has appeared in Best British Short Stories and he has been published by Nightjar Press, Kneehigh Theatre and the National Trust.
He has written for Radio 4’s Open Book, The Guardian and The Observer, and is a regular contributor to the journal Elementum.
Born in Stockport in 1979, Wyl now lives in Cornwall with his wife and two children. He is co-creator of the Cornish writing centre, The Writers’ Block, and works with Arvon Foundation, National Literacy Trust and Centre for Literacy in Primary Education on national literacy programmes, as well as lecturer in creative writing at Falmouth University.
When he is not writing or teaching writing, Wyl enjoys messing around in boats.
