BEST OF FRENCH
The French Mediterranean was the place of birth for scuba-diving, but is often overlooked by British divers. Is that because they need the gaudy colour of tropical reefs, or is it a problem of language? Wherever Americans go, English is the number one language. The French? They can sometimes seem very foreign!
     But for those willing to exchange diving for la plongé, France offers some spectacular sport and Corsica, the fourth-largest island in the Med and close to the French coast, some of the best.
     Kurt Amsler, a Swiss national who has dived all over the world, strides easily between the Gallic and Anglo-Saxon worlds. His dive guide to Corsica is easily digested by both cultures.
     As part of the Swan Hill series, it follows a template with its illustrations of dive sites. These I have always found a little superficial, as if the artist has never seen the place. They remind me of those artists' impressions of buildings made from architects' plans. Don't expect to see the fish where they've been sprinkled!
     That said, it's a lot of fun and the drawings punctuate much hard information. Amsler's photographs are as workmanlike as ever and give a fair impression of the animals you are likely to see. There is still some red coral to be found, and plenty of false corals, all of which add colour to his work.
     Grouper City at Lavezzi, the wreck of the Vickers Viking aircraft at Cap Mortoli, the Tunnel near Galeria, the war-time wreck of the B17 bomber near Calvi, and the small wreck of the Alcione C near Campoloro are highlights, but most of the dives are scenic, as in Fish 'n' Rocks.
     If you are going to Corsica, this guide book will prove invaluable. If you are collecting the Swan Hill series, missing this one would be an oversight.
John Bantin

Up Periscope
Periscope Publishing is a venture by top technical divers Innes McCartney and Nick Hope, designed to take advantage of some of their hard-earned video footage and wreck research.
     Both the new Britannic and Jutland wreck videos begin with stirring brass bands and military marches, a nice change from the moody modern instrumentals usually dubbed onto underwater sound tracks.
     Though not in the same league as the BBC Natural History Unit's work, the pictures and editing were good enough for me and worked with the dialogue to tell the stories behind both expeditions.
     The only area in which both videos are lacking is the narration. It is clearly spoken, but stilted and clunky. It sounds like text written to be read rather than voiced, and contrasts poorly with the nicely spoken interviews.
     There is little mention of previous dives at either location, other than reference to Jacques Cousteau locating the Britannic years ago. The Jutland video mentions only in passing that the wrecks have been dived before, though a well-known East Coast liveaboard has been taking divers there for years.
     The Britannic video also leaves unmentioned the previous expedition by UK divers - but then, the BBC production featuring the M1 conveniently neglected to admit that Innes McCartney got there first!
     Narration apart, I thoroughly enjoyed both videos - more so, in fact, than I have enjoyed many acclaimed TV diving programmes. They contained a good balance of history and diving information and benefited from having been produced by divers for divers.
     If sold for broadcast, the narration could no doubt be tidied up to produce some first-class viewing.
John Liddiard

THE WIGHT STUFF
The waters surrounding the Isle of Wight and adjacent coast of Hampshire are well known as a fascinating area for diving, and offer a very wide range of contrasting sites. For the sport diver, many of the advantages of the locality are geographical. A number of sheltered dive sites can be found even in weather conditions that might prevent diving at more exposed locations.
     Because of the heavy concentration of shipping using the major ports of Portsmouth and Southampton over the centuries, there are hundreds of wreck dives from which to choose, as well as a varied choice of other underwater attractions and natural features.
     Sheltered bays, Victorian piers, and rock ledges are in most cases easily accessible from the shore, and can produce some fascinating dives. Detailed positions and descriptions of these are given in the revised edition of Dive Wight and Hampshire by Martin Pritchard and Kendall McDonald, and the variety of locations cater for both the novice and experienced diver alike.
     The book comprehensively covers a wide variety of shipwrecks and dive sites, and is an asset to both visiting and local sport divers.
     Much new material has been added, and this latest publication is the result of a what has obviously been a considerable amount of hard work and research by the authors. It makes an interesting and enlightening read.
Martin Woodward
    

Get on top of your engine
It used to be that everyone got lots of practice fixing outboards. Our club's needed repairs just about every time we left the beach, and often at sea to get us back again.
     The trouble with modern outboards is that they are just too reliable. We don't get that intensive repair experience any more, so when they do go wrong we can get caught out.
     The video Outboard Troubleshooting is presented by Andy Clark in a somewhat wooden style, but that's because he is an outboard expert rather than a professional presenter.
     He shows us round an outboard, pointing out the key parts. Considering that most outboards are two-stroke, it's a shame his demonstration uses a four-stroke, but later demos do use two-strokes, so don't be put off.
     Along comes Andy's top ten list of problems, and why they occur. Unsurprisingly, problem number one is contaminated fuel. We are then taken through boat toolkits, workshop tools and fully servicing an outboard.
     Even if you don't want to do this yourself, the knowledge will help you tell if your dealer is doing a decent job.
     What's missing is a section on "get you home" tricks, the sort of bodges you can use to limp back to port when things go wrong at sea.
     Nevertheless, I would recommend that every dive club gets a copy of Outboard Troubleshooting and shows it to members.
     Perhaps someone should make a similar video for regulator servicing!
John Liddiard

ULTIMATE TRUK STOP
There can be few divers who are not fascinated by the story of Truk Lagoon, the graveyard of so many Japanese World War Two wrecks. Who better to tell the story than author Dan E Bailey, who has dived the site more than 40 times? His new book is something of a masterpiece of underwater exploration, photography and research.
     The work is the culmination of eight years of concentrated effort, and there is a mountain of new information, updates and revelations, together with new photographs.
     The huge lagoon at Truk was chosen as HQ of the Japanese Combined Fleet, its first line of defence or offence, and an armada of warships was constantly anchored there, with hundreds of aircraft stationed or in transit. Almost all major Japanese naval operations, including the attack on Pearl Harbour, were co-ordinated through Truk, which was regarded as impregnable.
     The Americans thought differently. Their two-day air campaign, Operation Hailstone, became one of the most aggressive actions taken by US forces. Some Japanese ships were able to flee, but US aircraft found 60-plus vessels in the lagoon and sank more than 45, including light cruisers, destroyers, sub-chasers, motor torpedo boats, auxiliary and combatant vessels and merchantmen, totalling over 220,000 tons - plus some 270 aircraft. Most were sunk in relatively shallow waters.
     Dan Bailey's book is almost impossibly comprehensive, covering in detail the Japanese occupation and development of the lagoon, the US assault, and the exploration of the ship and aircraft wrecks that remain. Hundreds of photographs, maps and drawings are included. This is a remarkable work that rewards a steep cover price.
Bernard Eaton

Topping up the sharks
Diving with Jellyfish - not a very compelling title, is it?
     No, the folks at New Holland know how to draw in their audience, which is why this volume is called Diving with Sharks (and Other Adventure Dives) and has the usual photo of a great white approaching a shark-cage on its cover.
     Only about a third of this volume concerns sharks. The rest is about other ways of having an adventure under water, including encounters with dolphins, rays, turtles - and jellyfish.
     Add sea snakes and the big grouper at the Cod Hole and you can see that this is more a catalogue of someone's diving experiences. It seems short on hard facts, too.
     I get the feeling the original idea was Diving with Sharks but that they couldn't come up with enough material, so padded it out with whatever else Jack Jackson had in his cupboard, augmented with sections written by Al Hornsby of Skin Diver magazine in the USA. They make an unlikely duo.
     There is a limited section on wreck-diving, one on strong currents, extended-range diving is touched on, and finally there's a section on overhead environments - caves and ice.
     However, if these topics interest you, many good volumes deal with each in detail and better than the few superficial ideas laid down here. Wreck-diving earns 20 pages, cave-diving 13. Diving in currents mentions only four locations: Blue Corner (Palau), Puerto Galera in the Philippines, Cocos Island and Cozumel.
     The book purports to be aimed at intrepid divers but some of the advice on technique seems rather basic. It is beautifully designed, but the picture selection seems to have come from the bottom of the drawer. Never mind the photography, admire the reproduction.
     I think this book is intended for divers who want to impress new or even non-divers. It's very glossy, but its subject has been glossed over.
John Bantin

STEEPED IN HISTORY
The Bull and the Barriers, The Wrecks of Scapa Flow deals with the events leading to the surrender, scuttling and eventual salvage of the High Seas Fleet in Scapa Flow after WWI. There are also chapters on Lawson Wood's diving experiences on the Royal Oak, Gunther Prien's attack on that battleship in his submarine U-47 and the building of the Churchill barriers alluded to in the title (the Bull was the design painted on the U-boat's conning tower).
     If you find such historical topics interesting, you're in for a treat, because the book contains vast numbers of black and white photographs, especially of the fighting ships, including many I had never seen before. In certain chapters, the pages of pictures far outweighed the text.
     Many underwater photos of the wrecks are also to be found, but this book is not designed as a dive guide to Scapa Flow, and only a few paragraphs are dedicated to diving the seven other big ships of the High Seas Fleet. The book also flits over other topics that would interest a diver; the Battle of Jutland, for instance, hardly gets a mention.
     This is a book of general historical interest but divers will find more information about diving Scapa in the many established dive guides already available for the area.
Mike Clark

What's up, doc?
I won't keep you waiting; I didn't like Essentials of Diving Safety and can't recommend it, and this is why.
     The book lists Wesley Y Yapor's literary credits. He is a doctor who has written various medical texts and published papers in medical journals.
     Unfortunately, he appears to have followed such a style for this book. The paragraphs are too long and the wording unnecessarily complicated. It is simply hard to read.
     I could be wrong, but I get the impression that Mr Yapor's words were spoken into a dictating machine and transcribed by a typist rather than written down by the author.
     The sections on diving techniques, practices and equipment say nothing that can't be found in BSAC or PADI manuals. Boat safety is approached largely from an American boat operator's point of view. There is plenty about liability releases, insurance and boat equipment mandated by US regulations, but these are not the same as UK regulations. If you want to know about boat safety, read the relevant BSAC and RYA manuals.
     I simply laughed at the sections on crew. Uniforms, clean shaven, mandatory use of deodorants, polite conversation? Have a nice day! Is he telling us how to run a dive boat or a hamburger franchise?
     If you really want to know about slick American customer relations, read a book from one of many self-styled retail business gurus.
     Some divers might find worthwhile information in this book, but there is nothing here that cannot be found elsewhere in more readable and worthwhile texts.
John Liddiard