Stone Will Answer: A Journey Guided by Craft, Myth and Geology

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In recent years this slender tradition of stonemasons writing about stone has experienced a quiet revival of sorts with my own King of Dust (2019) and Andrew Ziminski’s The Stonemason (2020) to which is now added Beatrice Searle’s extraordinary Stone Will Answer. I was quickly taken in by Beatrice Searle's distinctive voice, and by the end I couldn't help but feel very differently about stones, rootedness, belonging, and indeed what walking might mean.

I cannot recommend this book enough, and encourage anyone with a love for art, nature, history, and philosophy to give it a read. We honour Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' continuous connection to Country, waters, skies and communities.She had recently completed her masonry training at Lincoln Cathedral and become fascinated with the mysterious footprint stones of Scandinavia, Northern Europe and the ancient Greco-Roman world; stones closely associated with travellers, saints and the inauguration of Kings. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories. Parallel to these discoveries is another factor, the dawning realisation that as a stonemason, serving her apprenticeship at Lincoln Cathedral, her work might be ‘upholding the unnatural stasis of a startling and shifting material’. It can be ubiquitous but often differs in quality within one postcode, within one quarry, within even one section of one quarry. I loved learning about the essence of stone, the craft of people who work with it and the impact that doing something different and brave can have upon our lives.

How dare you ask to come along, corrupting the beautiful simplicity of our journey and then be f***ing awful when it gets tough! At the age of twenty-six, artist and Cathedral stonemason Beatrice Searle crossed the North Sea and walked 500 miles along a medieval pilgrim path through Southern Norway, taking with her a 40-kilogram Orcadian stone. It is also a treatise on human relationships, to places and to other people; and the meaning these relationships will always hold in a person's life, even when severed. At the age of twenty-six, stonemason and artist Beatrice Searle embarked on an expedition like no other. In many ways this book is a tale of intense physical effort guided by deep personal philosophy, whether that is in the craft of stone-masonry or the long and laden walk.

The book takes you not just on the authors pilgrimage journey but also into the journey of her life that led to the decision and drive to do something as brave and quirky as dragging a 40kg stone on a trolley over 500km through difficult Norwegian terrain. Although initially set on a solo journey, Searle had reluctantly agreed to accept her then partner’s offer to accompany her. The journey is a pilgrimage, despite Searle’s initial reluctance to accept that description (as she says, she hasn’t left home if she’s brought a piece of it with her) but there are multiple journeys in this book.