Hello and welcome to Meteowriter, the author website of Kevin Sene.
I’m a scientist and writer and my most recent book is a travel guide to the Mersey Estuary in Liverpool, Wirral and Cheshire and its history, environment and wildlife. I have another guide due out soon on the Cumbria and Lake District coast and have written technical books on the links between water and climate. You can read more about them below along with tips on writing and photography.
I also write a blog on the coast and estuaries and the Mersey and Cumbria pages on this site give a summary of recent posts. Hope that you find the site interesting and just let me know if you have any ideas for future topics.
The Mersey Estuary: A Travel Guide
This guide, published in 2020, describes the Mersey Estuary and its history, environment and wildlife. It is available directly from Troubador Publishing and most bookshops and there is an ebook too. Here is the description from the Troubador site:
Stretching for around thirty miles to the coast, the Mersey Estuary is perhaps best known for Liverpool’s spectacular waterfront and the Mersey Ferry. But there are many other hidden gems along its shores, including waterside parks, sandy beaches and poignant reminders of the days of steamships and sail.
The Mersey Estuary: A Travel Guide provides suggestions for places to visit along the estuary, from its upper reaches in Warrington to where it meets the sea at New Brighton and the Sefton Coast. Along the way, the book calls in at Widnes, Runcorn, Ellesmere Port, Port Sunlight, Birkenhead, Liverpool and Formby Point, and includes an interesting mix of walks and cycling routes, ranging from a couple of hours to a full day out.
Readers will also discover some less well-known sights, including lighthouses, a castle, medieval buildings, and a transporter bridge, one of only eight left in the world.
For those interested in the history, environment and wildlife of the estuary, there is also an introduction to its nature reserves, geology, canals and bird life. Other topics include the development of the Port of Liverpool, including its famous Liver Birds, and how the estuary has been cleaned up in recent decades so that even salmon have returned. There are also tips on birdwatching and photography and on where to see seals and the Mersey’s little-known tidal bore.
With stunning colour photographs, The Mersey Estuary: A Travel Guide is a must-read for travellers to the area and local residents alike.
The Troubador site also includes reviews from readers, recent author news and a link to a short video about the book, and there are more reviews on Goodreads. If you’d like to see some photographs from the book there is a selection here and I describe how I went about writing it in this post.
The Cumbria and Lake District Coast
I’m currently finalising a book on the coast of Cumbria and the Lake District, which is due for publication soon. It describes places to visit along the coast from Morecambe Bay to the Solway Firth along with the history and wildlife of the area.
I’ll be adding updates here and giving insights into the publication process in my newsletter. Called The Cumbria and Lake District Coast it will be available from most book retailers and directly from Troubador Publishing and you can read more about it on this webpage.
Meanwhile there are blog posts on a Windermere walk, the England Coast Path, invasive plant species, seal spotting, the Arnside Bore and amazing waterbird displays called murmurations; see the Cumbria page for a summary.
Technical books
I’ve also written technical books on flash floods, hydrometeorology and flood warning and forecasting, all published by Springer. Typical readers include practitioners and researchers and they are useful for university courses too.
Topics vary between books but taken together include flood warning, flood forecasting, hydropower, irrigation, water resources, droughts, rainfall forecasting, urban flooding, tidal prediction, coastal flooding, probabilistic forecasting, emergency response, decision support systems and water quality.
Some common themes include how variations in rainfall and climate affect river flows, lake levels and other aspects of the natural environment, and how we can understand, predict and reduce the risks.
Writing and photography
If you are interested in writing and photography, I’ve written up some thoughts on organising research for nonfiction books and photographing waterbirds.
I’ve also written posts on my approaches to photographic post processing and video making and describe writing The Mersey Estuary: A Travel Guide here.
