BY ROSEANNE ALEXANDER
It is impossible to describe magic which, of its very nature, is inexplicable. But ‘Waterfalls of Stars’ by Roseanne Alexander (2017) is magic from beginning to end. It’s about a girl who half loved a boy who was already helplessly in love with a wild island off the coast of Pembrokeshire in West Wales. When he was appointed to be its warden — provided he got married within ten days — Roseanne had to hurriedly make up her mind whether to share his dream, which certainly wan’t hers, or snatch it away. Thank goodness for us she succumbed and fell so completely under the island’s spell that she could hardly bear to leave it, even for hours, for the next ten years. Indeed she loved Skomer so much that she has vowed never to return, in case it breaks her heart.
Instead she has has written a lyrical love-letter to Skomer and all its wild creatures which she has kindly shared with us. It is no exaggeration to say it ranks alongside Dylan Thomas’ ‘Under MIlk Wood’ and R.M Lockley’s ‘The Island’ as a vivid and unforgettable evocation of coastal life in Wales. What more can I say except that everyone into whose hands I have thrust it couldn’t put it down, and intends to re-read it — as I have done twice already. It just gets better.
Britain has so very little true wilderness left but Skomer, set amidst its fierce tide-races and overfalls is an unforgettable reminder of what we have so nearly lost. With its 40,000 breeding puffins, 600, 000 breeding Shearwaters, innumerable seals, Kittiwakes, Elegugs and Razorbills, it is a wonder we must preserve at all costs in case it goes under to another foolish and unnecessary oil-tanker tragedy like the 1996 Sea Empress disaster outside the oil-terminal at Milford Haven, not twenty miles away. But if Roseanne’s love letter was to be Skomer’s only epitaph I cannot imagine a better. Her text is as unforgettable as her title [Seren Books, 2017, £12.99, http://www.serenbooks.com ] .Do yourself a favour: buy it, read it and hand it on.
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