Ghosts

"I was much further out than you thought

And not waving but drowning."

- Stevie Smith (1972)

The Suffolk coastline on the east of England has some of the worst coastal erosion in Europe. The tiny village of Covehithe has almost been lost to the North Sea, and visitors now come to see the ruins and the crumbling cliffs. Local farmers are losing fields and woodland. When trees topple off the cliff there begins a slow, inexorable surrender to the sea. The waves and sand strip the trees bare, and they take on a smooth aesthetic. At spring tide, the surf comes up to the cliffs and the bones of the trees take on the look of ghostly apparitions clawing for help; not waving, but drowning.