Writer and stand-up comedian A. L KENNEDY describes the impact of growing up by the water in Dundee and how beach walking eases the mind. Interview Alex Reece.
Having grown up in Dundee, I don’t feel at home if I can’t see water. From my bedroom window, I could glimpse a bit of the Tay Estuary. So I kind of need that, ideally.
I’ve got a very good view where I live now – I can see all of London. The far skyline is quite vague and you can pretend that it’s a coast. But what I do here is just walk down to London Bridge, then go along the Thames.
If I’m next to water and walking I can do that all day and it stops me thinking. This is why I’ve always enjoyed the long sands in St Andrews, because you can walk for a couple of hours there. When I worked in St Andrews for a few years, sometimes I’d walk on that beach and then sit in the sand dunes and seals would come and look at you, because they’re inquisitive creatures.
For holidays and weekends when I was growing up, my family would rent cottages in different parts of Fife (Kilrenny, Anstruther and Kilconquhar), which involved lots of little bays and harbours. It was never all that warm, so I didn’t enjoy sea swimming until I went to New Zealand as an adult. I finally worked out that it could be pleasant – before then, it had been horrible – but I liked playing in rockpools and finding things.
If I get a chance to have a break now, I go to Nairn (pictured), which is on the Moray Firth, and again you’ve got big beaches, so you can walk and walk and walk. The seabirds are great, the seashells are amazing and you’ve got nature reserves up and down.
If I ever had any money properly again (having bought somewhere in London), I would get a little place up in Nairn. And, when the time comes, that’s where I’d retire. I don’t think there’s any literary scene up there. (John Byrne has a small place there but he’s unusual, because he’s a painter as well.) I mean, there are writers everywhere, but they’re like spiders. If you can’t see them, you can pretend they’re not there.
All the Rage by A.L. Kennedy is published by Jonathan Cape (£16.99).
"For holidays and weekends when I was growing up, my family would rent cottages in different parts of Fife (Kilrenny, Anstruther and Kilconquhar), which involved lots of little bays and harbours. It was never all that warm, so I didn’t enjoy sea swimming until I went to New Zealand as an adult. I finally worked out that it could be pleasant – before then, it had been horrible – but I liked playing in rockpools and finding things."
