Growing up by the coast, many of my happiest childhood memories are from days spent at the seaside, splashing along the shore and exploring the rockpools. By home time, I would invariably
have a fresh stock of interesting shells in my bucket to take and add to my collection. Back then, like a lot of children, I thought shells were things that animals lived in, rather than them actually being part of the animal itself. It came as quite the eye-opener when I twigged.
Ever since my ‘road to Damascus’ moment, I’ve been fascinated by how shells grow. Their baffling mathematical complexity is a great example of the gobsmacking beauty of nature. Helen Scales’ brilliant feature about them this magazine issue (p64) has me itching to get back to the shoreline with my son this summer and see what he’ll choose for his own bucke

Download from:

NitroFlare

• Britain at War – July 2022
• BBC Good Food UK – July 2022