As part of the National Trust’s ‘People’s Landscape’ celebrations, Katrina Porteous and Phoebe Power became writing residents on Durham’s ‘radical coast’. It’s an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty that stretches from Seaham to Hartlepool, with rare Magnesian Limestone grasslands, wildflower meadows and ancient wooded denes, as well as being the former site of several of Durham’s last deep coal mines. Notorious for its ‘black beaches’ and polluted landscape, in the 1990s it underwent a transformation, with the removal of 1.3 million tonnes of colliery spoil. That transformation is still underway, particularly within the coastal communities, some of England’s most economically-deprived.  Sea Change looks beyond that recent history and considers future prospects for the area.

Katrina Porteous grew up in Co Durham and lives on the Northumberland coast. She writes from a deep commitment to the ecology of place and community. Her collections from Bloodaxe Books include The Lost Music (1996) and Two Countries (2014), and poems written for a planetarium, Edge (2019).

Phoebe Power’s Shrines of Upper Austria (Carcanet, 2018) was awarded the Forward Prize for Best First Collection and shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize. Her collaborations include a live performance of her pamphlet Harp Duet (2016), and Christl, a video installation involving poetry, visual art and sound. Phoebe lives in York. 

Rose Ferraby is an artist and archaeologist from Yorkshire who combines these disciplines to encourage imaginative exploration of object and site narratives. Rose has worked with the British Museum and with BBC Radio 3, where her essay ‘Gypsum and Alabaster’ was featured on the Cornerstones series. Her books with Guillemot include Melanie Challenger’s The Tender Map and Susie Campbell’s Tenter.

ISBN 978-1-913749-12-5 / 200 x 154mm / 64pp / full colour illustrations / printed on Mohawk Superfine papers / section sewn