A director of Shire Publications at Tring, Hertfordshire, recently had the excellent idea that a guide book should be produced based on life-boat stations.

This company specialises in the publication of unusual guides. The outcome of this suggestion has been Discovering Life-boats by E. W. Middleton (Shire Publications, 4s. 6d.). In 80 pages a wealth of information about the life-boat stations of England and Wales is included. Stations are arranged in the order in which they are situated along the coast, starting at the Thames estuary and continuing in a clockwise direction. Details of the station life-boat are given together with a brief history of the station and clear instructions on how the visitor can reach the life-boat.

Brief though the histories are they contain much fascinating information, such as the fact that in January, 1860, the Dover life-boat was exercised in the presence of two Russian princes, sons of the Grand Duchess Mary of Russia, and that nearly a hundred years later the Dover life-boat made television history when a life-boat rescue was televised live for the first time. Elsewhere the reader will learn that the life-boat stationed at Minehead in 1939 was a light surf type with two 12 h.p. engines driving pumps which propelled the boat by water jets.

This was a method much in use for ferry boats in Norway and Sweden.

There are a number of excellent photographs of life-boats at Gorleston, Cromer, Bembridge, Walmer and Hastings, as well as diagrams and a useful index.

This work was a combined operation in which much valuable help was given by honorary secretaries of life-boat stations and by the Operations Department at Head Office. It seems a pity that such help is not acknowledged in the text.

Nor is any reference made to the author's long connection with the life-boat service.

• The overland journey of the Lynmouth life-boat across Exmoor in January, 1899, is one of the great stories of human endeavour. In conditions which prevented the boat from being launched at Lynmouth she was transported by horse and man-power up Countisbury Hill, with a gradient of 1 in 4 , across the open moor, and down Porlock Hill—in all a 10£ hour journey—before being launched off Porlock beach. But for the action of a former Lymouth honorary secretary, Tom F. Bevan, who described the events laconically in the September, 1933, issue of The Life-boat, this extraordinary story might well have remained buried. Since then it has been frequently recalled in newspaper articles. It has also been reenacted on sound radio. Now for the first time a book has been written telling the full story in slightly fictionalised form. This is The Overland Launch by C. Walter Hodges (G. Bell & Sons, 20s.).

To give his story more impact Mr. Hodges has created two imaginary charac- ters, a schoolboy and a schoolmaster, but for the rest he has told the story most carefully and accurately. To prepare himself for this task he made a point of walking over the route himself. Mr. Hodges has illustrated his account with some delightful drawings. A tale which cannot be told too often has been presented here in an authentic and lively manner.• David Harwood in Alert to Danger! (G. Bell & Sons, 18s. 6d.) tells a number of stories of human courage and human endurance.

The incidents described include bomb disposal in London in the last war; a fire in an oil well; a climber's fall in the Australian Blue Mountains and the evacuation of the islanders of Tristan da Cunha. Two of the stories tell of life- saving off the south west coast of England. One of these followed the stranding of the French trawler Jeanne Gougy on the Armed Knight Rock at Land's End in November, 1962. The frustration experienced by the crew of the Sennen Cove life-boat and of the members of H.M. Coastguard is vividly conveyed. So too is the final rescue carried out by a helicopter of the R.A.F., whose winchman, Flight Sergeant Eric Smith, was awarded the George Medal.

The second story of life-saving at sea is that of the rescue from the yacht Braemar by the St. Mary's (Scilly Isles) life-boat in May, 1967. The Braemar was on charter to Independent Television News for the coverage of the return of Sir Francis Chichester in Gipsy Moth IV after his round-the-world voyage.

Appalling conditions were encountered, and the bowman of the life-boat recalled that for the first time in his 23 years of life-boat service he was washed off his feet by a heavy sea. Wave heights were estimated at between 30 and 35 feet as the life-boat carried out an exceptionally difficult towing operation.

This was a rescue for which the St. Mary's coxswain, Matthew Lethbridge, received the R.N.L.I.'s silver medal for gallantry.

Mr. Harwood's whole book is an inspiring example of what men in all parts of the world will do when the lives of others are in danger.—P.H..