Even in his sleep he longed for the ocean. On the edge of Englands wild North Yorkshire coast, openDemocracy crosses generations in this exclusive of sound, photography and storytelling. Hear Candida Clark read from her acclaimed novel of grief and redemption, The Mariners Star, while her mother, Sally Heywood, evokes the experience of a once-vibrant fishing community and remembers the last of the last.

Out to sea from Staithes, North Yorkshire
Sally Heywood recorded Bringing the Last Boat Home as part of the BBCs IGNITE programme.
Click here to listen
The Mariners Star is a love story and, like all great love stories, a death story... a treat to be lingered over... the writing is so evocative that it feels like being inside a painting... (Geraldine Bedell, The Observer)
Listen to Candida Clark read Chapter 1 of The Mariners Star

North Yorkshire coast
Click here for Chapter 2 of The Mariners Star
Staithes, North Yorkshire
Candida Clark will be reading from her forthcoming novel A House of Light (Headline Press, January 2005) at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. For more information, and to book tickets,
click here.
Photographs taken by Candida Clark
This article is
copyright Candida Clark and Sally Heywood and openDemocracy.