A ninety-year-old man in a uniform tells me the tour of the lighthouse will begin in a few minutes, and the only other visitor takes the opportunity to introduce himself as Charles from Colorado. His accent is deep and layered, he speaks with soft joy, and he loves lighthouses, though strangely I know this already.
‘We’re members of the United States Lighthouse Society,’ he says with a spark in his eye. ‘We’ve climbed a hundred seventy-nine lighthouses to the top, so far.’
Issue 10
LOST SHOAL
Seb Reilly is an award-winning published writer, fiction author, poet, and occasional musician. He is Editor of Seaside Gothic. From 2015–2020 he was Editor-in-Chief of Thanet Writers and in 2021 he was named Kent Columnist of the Year for his column in The Isle of Thanet News.