For over five decades, Beth Lynch has been repeatedly drawn to a rocky spot on the North Cornwall coast, where her earliest memories are tied to idyllic family holidays. As she grows older, her connection to the cove deepens – this slippery interface of land and sea becomes her refuge from anxiety and school bullying. Following the deaths of her parents, strange occurrences around the cove leave Lynch questioning how well she truly knows this section of coast that so irresistibly calls to her. What secrets does it hold? Is she safer staying away? The Cove is a lyrical meditation on being a revenant, on haunting and being haunted, as Lynch, through encounters with quarrymen, wartime women, and an enigmatic archaeologist along with JMW Turner, Tennyson, Trollope and the Hardys, reflects on mortality, our deepest fears, and the nuanced ways we part with the dead. It explores the profound impacts of change in both people and places, and the transformative dance between the two.
