COFFEE AND CAKE
I get to see a lot of coffee-table-style books. They are invariably beautifully reproduced collections of stunning photographs, but they leave me cold. I don't feel the need to put any of them on my bookshelf for future reference, and why is that? Well, they just don't have enough information in them.
     Richard C Murphy is a marine biologist and an accomplished underwater photographer. He is also vice-president with responsibility for science and education of Jean-Michel Cousteau's Ocean Futures Society. His book Coral Reefs - Cities Under the Sea is full of beautifully reproduced photographs but these are used to support an informative text.
     I would go as far as to say that this is a textbook in the guise of a coffee-table volume, and why shouldn't textbooks be both digestible and entertaining? Why shouldn't they be fun?
     Even the chapter-headings are dressed up to be appealing. "Power Plants and Farms" is about the relationships between corals, algae, and sunlight. "Construction and Public Housing" is about the reef structure and the animals that live within it. "Public Health" is about reef-living cleaner fish and sponges - the reef's pharmacy. And so on.
     It's fascinating stuff. This very readable volume could be used as a primer for everything you need to know about coral reefs.
     The opening words of one chapter uses a portentous analogy. It tells us that some coral reef structures are the biggest living things on earth and that some are bigger than the World Trade Centre. And in as much danger, from global-warming, if I may say so.
     Don't buy this book for its lavish production, its pretty pictures, or for that heady smell usually reserved for the results of vanity publishing. Enjoy the text, be entertained by the beautifully crafted photographs, and get educated about coral reefs.
     As Dr Robert Ginsberg, a respected coral-reef scientist at the University of Miami, says, a book should "dazzle, inspire and inform". This one does it for me.
John Bantin

Break it up!
The British Sub-Aqua Club's The Diving Manual, by Deric Ellerby, is considerably slimmed down from previous editions, presenting information pertinent to new divers training to be Ocean Divers.
     BSAC says it is the first of three books which will eventually replace its Sport Diving and out-of-print Advanced Sport Diving books.
     On first glance it feels nice and easy on the eyes, with informative and relevant illustrations and pleasantly laid-out pages. Material is presented in a logical sequence and the learning diver should have no trouble locating information from the table of contents or index.
     My only serious gripe is that the paragraphs tend to go on and on. Sometimes this is just a failure to break up a detailed explanation into more compact chunks. At other times, the paragraphs repeat and ramble and, talking of rambling, a mistake I noticed was that Southsea BSAC invented Octopush, not Brighton, but then, I suppose most learning divers won't know enough to care.
     The net effect is that, having easily found a relevant topic from the contents, what should have been nice, clear explanation becomes rather difficult to follow. It's a good job most new divers comparing training agencies have made up their minds long before they get as far as trying to read a manual in detail. Overall it does the job, but it could easily have been so much better.
John Liddiard

A TOUCH OF INCONSISTENCY
My first impression: the choice of cover photo is not good. It shows a diver wearing reef gloves hanging onto a barrel sponge.
     The introduction to this Australian book, Recreational Scuba Diving, says it is the companion to www.edivecollege.com, an on-line diver-training course. Without a site subscription, my comments are directed at the book alone.
     Content is nicely structured and comprehensive in scope. Each chapter is followed by review questions and answers are given at the back. Explanation is short, sharp and to the point.
     While fairly obvious to someone who already knows the subject, I am unsure whether this is sufficiently detailed and progressive for a student who knows little at the time of reading.
     In some places the text is course-specific, but this may not be clear to learning divers and may conflict with their primary training.
     Relating back to the cover photo, the environmental message within the book is inconsistent. One section says: "Don't touch the reef". Another says: "Always wear gloves".
     But, with reservations, this book could serve as a second text providing an independent perspective for many entry-level and "advanced" scuba-diving courses.
     A beginning diver presented with this book will most likely find it educational.
John Liddiard

The name's Lenihan: licensed to protect
Sub-titled Adventures of America's Most Elite Underwater Archaeology Team, Submerged is a handsomely presented pot-pourri of archaeological diving around the USA, American-style. It imaginatively describes the adventures of Daniel Lenihan during his 25 years with the Submerged Cultural Resources Unit (SCRU) of the US National Park Service. His mission: to boldly go and survey, map, investigate and protect shipwrecks and sites forming part of America's sunken heritage.
     I suspect that not every archaeologist would agree with the operational style. I can imagine certain of them needing the professional services of a paramedic specialising in "apoplexy archaeologica" after turning just a few of its pages. Nevertheless, each to his own. This is how it is done in the USA, allegedly.
     The dive-sites visited are, I suppose inevitably, stunning. As a non-archaeologist, one cannot help being slightly envious of Lenihan's unique career, which takes in sites ranging from Florida caves to ancient ruins submerged in reservoirs, to a WW2 Japanese submarine off Alaska (though perhaps not so much of the near-death experiences in caves, wrecks and submerged buildings).
     Of local interest to UK readers will be the chapter on the wreck of the Confederate steamship Alabama, which was sunk during a memorable action in the English Channel (on the French side).
     The writing style is colourful, stylish and, dare I say, makes great reading. It reads like a novel, perhaps Mickey Spillane Goes Diving. For instance: "No one died on this dive. No one was injured ..."; and not many books on underwater archaeology would describe the surfacing of a diver in terms of "the blanket of tension evaporates like fog in a sunburst"! Jules Verne, eat your heart out!
John Bevan

IF YOU GO TO THE GALAPAGOS
You can scuba dive in the Galapagos only if accompanied by an official naturalist guide. Pierre Constant went to Ecuador to become such a guide in 1980 and, though he now lives in Hong Kong, he has returned for regular visits ever since. So he knows his subject.
     Some say that the Galapagos offers the best diving in the world. I wouldn't necessarily go that far, but it certainly is a very special place. However, anyone who visits will obviously be interested in the animals they see both above and below the surface.
     Marine Life of the Galapagos is a diver's guide to its fish, whales, dolphins and marine invertebrates. Curiously, the index lists sea-lions and fur seals but these are omitted from the main text. Otherwise, it attempts to catalogue and describe all marine life from the mighty whale shark to the tiniest sea-slug.
     I suppose that after a few visits the novelty of the sea-lions and toothed whales buzzing you wears off and you start to look at the nudibranchs! The foreword usefully explains why these islands provide such a rich marine eco-system.
     The book is illustrated with colour photographs of most of the animals but these are presented, with some sketches, in the rather unromantic style of an academic textbook, more for reference than admiration. This is a tool to be used while on the islands, not just a souvenir.
     Most dive sites are listed and many are shown as sketched plans. There is advice on the diving too, because some of it is quite advanced thanks to the strong currents prevalent in the area. It's pretty comprehensive. That said, I'll tell you all you need to know about diving in the Galapagos: go to Darwin and Wolf Islands!
John Bantin

U-boat salvage operation
Those divers who think that Robert M Grant was an American Civil War general can stop reading now. Those who know that he is one of the world's leading authorities on WW1 U-boats should continue and may learn something to their advantage.
     Grant, a professor at the University of Chicago, wrote two books about the Allies' struggle against the German U-boats. The first, published in 1964, was called U-Boats Destroyed, and it instantly established Grant as the leading historian of the anti-submarine war of 1914-1918.
     His second book, U-Boat Intelligence, was published in 1969 and soon sold out. This book, using other material he had gathered during his research, which he had carried out from 1928 in archives all over the world, showed how the Intelligence Division of the Admiralty played a vital role in the defeat of the U-boat menace.
     Naval intelligence came from all sorts of sources - the interrogation of survivors from sunken subs, agents abroad, interception of signals from boats to bases and vice-versa, and the investigation of sunken U-boats. Grant reported it all.
     This book, too, became a respected source for those divers researching U-boats lost around Britain.
     The snag for researchers was that both books had been out of print for years. Copies in secondhand bookshops fetched high prices, if you could find them.
     Now all that hunting is over. Britain's No 1 U-boat buff, diver Innes McCartney, has reprinted both through his own publishing company. Wreck researchers will also be delighted to know that the reprinted U-Boat Intelligence now has a proper full index. No more eye-straining searches through the book are needed to find one particular reference to one particular submarine.
     While talking to Robert M Grant about the reprints, McCartney discovered that he actually wrote three books about U-boat operations in WW1.
     The third, Searching for U-Boats, was never published. But guess what? Yes, McCartney will be publishing that one this year too.
Kendall McDonald

BOTH APPEALING, ONE CUDDLIER
Both the companion books Coral Reefs by Charles Sheppard and Manatees and Dugongs by James Powell are the sort of titles that could easily have been published with a hard cover and an expensive coffee-table price tag.
     Instead, they are well-presented softbacks priced to be attractive to school libraries and divers buying on impulse.
     Excellent photography and big glossy layout from cover to cover drew me in to both books. The credits list many photographers whose work I admire.
     I found myself lapsing into a coffee-table reading habit, just browsing the photographs and reading the captions while ignoring the text. Reaching the back, I then read the appendices before making myself return to the front and start reading properly.
     In places the text is a little heavy going on science, but it's worth persevering because there is lots of interesting information in there.
     Coral Reefs tends to wander a bit and bog down, and I found Manatees and Dugongs a far more comfortable style to read and, of the two, enjoyed it the most.
     To be fair, however, I already knew much of what Coral Reefs had to say, while Manatees and Dugongs had much information new to me. Apart from the easier-going text, its pictures have what Mark Webster describes as the "pussycat factor". It just makes me want to fly off to Florida, swim with the manatees, take their pictures and cuddle them - though I hope not too many people are inspired that way!
John Liddiard

Wreck-dive briefings in print
Peter Collings likes to think he knows the Red Sea. His biography goes back further than some of that sea's recent history. For example, he was a passenger on the liveaboard mv Lady Jenny V as she stood by when the mv Giannis D went down. He has devoted 20 years to diving the wrecks found in the Red Sea and in that time has accrued much information and taken quite a few photos. So what to do with it all?
     In 1996 he published a book called Shipwrecks of the Egyptian Red Sea. It was very much a DIY job and he printed only 1000 copies. Then, he says, the printer disappeared with the original artwork! It has taken him this amount of time to track it down. The latest version is along the same lines as the original but with a colour section.
     For anyone who has dived these wrecks, it makes a very interesting read. Collings has covered all the sites that any diver is likely to visit on a typical liveaboard trip. In many cases there are contemporary photographs or illustrations of the original vessels, plus primitive illustrations by the author of the wrecks as they are now.
     Maps of the locations are a little "unfinished" too, and the quality of the colour photographs rather variable. This is a problem with doing it all yourself. Obviously Peter Collings did not have the budget to spend on bringing in people with skills to collaborate with him on this production.
     He did not apparently have the advantages of a second pair of eyes on the text, either. But at least he can claim that it's all his own work.
     He has also become a little blinkered about some of the facts he originally got wrong in the first edition. However, if you expect nothing more than information delivered in the manner of a sophisticated dive briefing, you won't be disappointed.
John Bantin