HE has tasted the salt of the sea and felt the ancient wisdom of trees; now Truro-based author Wyl Menmuir is uncovering our enduring connection to the landscapes of the UK and our shared human story written in stone.

The Spirit of Stone follows the The Draw of the Sea (2022) and The Heart of the Woods (2024) to complete his trilogy of essays combining travelogue, social history and memoir, bringing together interviews, folklore and personal encounters with the landscapes in question.

“I’m really excited about this book coming out, because it closes the trilogy I started writing around six years ago,” said Wyl.

“Stone is the difficult element, the one people find harder to engage with. It doesn’t change like the sea, and doesn’t look alive the way trees do. I think we have a blind spot with stone, and I didn’t know if I had a relationship with it. I found out very quickly that I do, and that it’s deep and complex.”

In Cornwall, Wyl explored the mysteries of ancient stone structures and watched the stars in West Penwith, and went in search of copper and tin at an abandoned mine in a secret location.

East of the Tamar, he perused records of ancient life in stone in Somerset’s Ebbor Gorge, made a pilgrimage to the sacred stones of Dartmoor and the Scottish isle of Iona, listened to tales fossils in Dorset and tried potholing in Derbyshire.

In his final chapter, he visits an old friend on the Scilly island of St Martin’s: a menhir (prehistoric standing stone) with the unlikely name of Billy Idol. “It felt like what I had been writing about all along was the ‘spirit of place’ – the ways in which we connect to the landscape, and why we need to connect to it.”

It’s been a busy and exciting year for Wyl. In April, he travelled to Montreal, Canada to receive the prestigious Blue Metropolis Planet Literature Prize for his oeuvre (previous winners include British nature writer Robert Macfarlane).

Shortly after finishing The Spirit of Stone, Wyl began the restoration of Eleana, a well-loved and well-sailed 1962 wooden wayfarer dinghy, as part of a short-term residency in the workshop at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall in Falmouth. With no prior experience of building or repairing boats, Wyl relied on the support of the museum's expert boatbuilding team with their specialist knowledge, tools and equipment. Eleana is now sitting in Discovery Wharf, and Wyl plans to to sail her to the Isles of Scilly this summer.

This experience will be the subject of his next book, due to be published by Picador in 2028. “I restored Eleana as part of an exploration of what seaworthiness means in our lives - in an attempt to feel less adrift in the world,” he explains.

“Seaworthiness is a metaphor for the ability to navigate life’s storms. In an age of increasing challenges to our mental health, and changes in climate, it is perhaps the metaphor we need most right now.”

The Spirit of Stone by Wyl Menmuir is published by Aurum Press on June 11, priced £16.99 (hardback). Meet the author on Tuesday, June 9 at Waterstones Truro from 7pm, and at the Edge of the World Bookshop, Penzance on Thursday, June 11 from 7.30pm.