Motor Boats and Motor Boating by Hilary and K. J. Wickham (Stanley Paul, 255) can be recommended as a clearly written and sensible guide to those who are planning to take to the water for their own pleasure. The book is directed to beginners, but as the number of beginners mounts yearly it will, one hopes, reach a wide market.

The authors give valuable advice on how to choose a boat. In this connection they state: 'Ex-R.N.L.I. craft hulls make excellent conversions, for they are built of the finest materials to the highest specification.' There are many useful comments on how to handle craft, the rules to be observed, the basic gear needed, the relative advantages of wooden and fibreglass hulls and on the maintenance of engines. The importance of insurance is stressed, and there is a valuable simplified guide to the problem of salvage, in which the R.N.L.I.'s position is fairly stated.

A tribute is paid to the services rendered by life-boat crews in recent years to owners of small boats. The authors state: 'The Royal National Life-boat Institution is a service of which as a seafaring nation we should be justly proud.' The book is well illustrated, most of the photographs being the authors' own.

Among the photographs included is one of the first yo-foot steel life-boats. P.H..