Scarborough Lighthouse proved the perfect setting for Tom's topic
Director of Books by the Beach Heather French has taken the festival to different venues this year - including Scarborough Lighthouse.
Now home to Scarborough Yacht Club, it became the perfect setting for Seashaken Houses: A Lighthouse History from Eddystone to Fastnet, a power-point presentation given by conservationist Tom Nancollas.
The event was the fastest ever selling in the six years of Books by the Beach - a sell-out in 90 minutes.
A look round the lighthouse included in the ticket prize was obviously part of the attraction but it was Nancollas' passion for lighthouses and his - forgive the pun - illuminating talk that kept the audience in their seats.
IN FULL: Books by the Beach programme hereStorms, untameable seas, engineering, danger, death, loneliness, poetry and prizewinning prose were all part of the story of these amazing constructions which have helped sailors navigate the British coast for centuries.
Nancollas did some research via Google - who doesn't these days - but he also visited lighthouses and amused and terrified us with tales of nights spent in haunted, abandoned lighthouses.
The event was a triumph - a story of the sea told by the sea: perfect.