From Coast & Cove: An artists year in paint and pen

A sea breeze wafts up from every page. This book is a delight. Nigel Slater

Both grounding and uplifting, From Coast & Cove, the new book from author and acclaimed illustrator Anna Koska, walks us through the four seasons on the English coast. Beautifully observed, contemplative and deeply personal, Anna combines emotive and evocative tales of life beside the sea with her exquisitely detailed and intricate illustrations of the plants and wildlife found in the water and along the coastline.

Anna and her family moved from East Sussex to Devon in 2020 and she now finds inspiration for her artworks in the ebb and flow of the tide throughout the year, the flotsam and jetsam washed up on the shore and the creatures spotted in the air, on land and tucked away in rockpools whether its the haunting cry of the curlew heard while kayaking along the River Dart, the iridescent scales and pointed teeth of a hake, the mussel shells discarded by an oystercatcher, or the kelp, wrack and eelgrass strewn along the beach and pressed for posterity.

A love letter to the natural world captured in materials ranging from pencil, pen and ink, watercolour and egg tempera, From Coast & Cove details an artists year spent beside the sea. A book to savour, and a wonderful celebration of natures cycles and minutiae.