The Spirit of Stone

Pickering Book Tree | Doors from 7pm | Tickets £5

 
Full of wonder, hope and fascinating tales of stones and their people — Fiona Robertson, author of Stone Lands

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 – from Mull to the Isles of Scilly – 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 and stone 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.

A warm and generous guide to the bedrock of our land, and the characters who champion it — Ruth Allen, author of Weathering and Grounded 

About the Author 

Wyl Menmuir is an author and creative writing lecturer based in Cornwall. His 2016 debut novel, The Many, was nominated for the Man Booker Prize and was an Observer Best Fiction of the year pick. His short fiction has appeared in Best British Short Stories and he has been published by Nightjar Press, Kneehigh Theatre and the National Trust.

Wyl’s non-fiction books have been awarded the Roger Deakin Award from the Society of Authors, the Award for Excellence from the OWPG, a Holyer an Gof Award, and the 2026 Blue Metropolis Planet Literature Prize, awarded for a body of work that demonstrates the beauty and fragility of the living world and promotes greater ecological awareness.

A former journalist, Wyl has written for Radio 4, The Guardian and The Observer. He lectures in creative writing at Falmouth University.

Tickets

£5 from the shop counter (currently cash only) or online at ticketsource.com

Direct link to booking page here

 
Doors will be open from 7pm for a 7.30pm start. The event will be held in our atmospheric upstairs event space.