BOOK REVIEW
Dive Weekends in South West England By Anita Sherwood
Anita Sherwood has delivered another well-polished, neatly presented UK dive-guide that is a tidy follow-on book from her Top 100 British Shore Dives book published back in 2009.
Appeared in DIVER December 2017
I KNOW THAT a colossal amount of time and effort has to go into putting a book like this together, and I also know that the job is often made difficult by the sometimes fickle UK visibility and weather conditions, not to mention the huge amounts of mileage that are necessary to complete this kind of project – so great work!
The photography is enticing, and thumbing through the pages will have readers reaching for their dive-gear and a spare weekend.
Sherwood’s images showcase some of the best scenic dives around this part of the country, along with a few accompanying critters, and is packed with all the kind of information you would expect from a dive-guide, including a selection of useful maps when required.
It’s delightfully written, and each wreck-dive site comes with a fair chunk of information on the former vessel’s history. A nice little touch that stands this book out from the crowd is the well-thought-out nine-page “anatomy of a steamship” section at the end. This makes real sense of some of the twisted metal remains we might overlook while on a UK wreck-dive.
Something that is always difficult to achieve when putting together a UK-based dive-guide is to capture photographically the sheer majesty of some of our finer, more intact UK wrecks, such as the Maine, James Eagan Layne and the M2 and although by no means a criticism, this remains true here.
This book is yet another testament to UK diving and I’m certain it’s capable of converting a good few warmwater divers into giving it a go.
Hedgehog Marketing
britishshoredives.co.uk
Softback, 128pp, 15 x 21cm, £14.95
Review by Will Appleyard
