• Roving Commissions (R.C.C. Press, price 42s.) is a limited annual edition of the Journal of the Royal Cruising Club, edited by Alasdair Garrett. If every reader gets as much pleasure and profit from these brisk, refreshing yacht journals as the present writer, Alasdair Garrett and his contributors must indeed have earnt a great deal of warm commendation.

Covering a wide range of vessels, places and crews there is something new and absorbing to the sea-lover on every page, including a considerable amount of very useful pilotage information. Every now and then an unusual piece of erudition sparkles unexpectedly. As, for instance, the fact that Edam cheeses are only provided with red rind for the export trade. It can never taste the same again! In general the cruises all emphasise the ability and resolution of those con- cerned, but some of the passages undertaken appear to be a somewhat hazardous form of pleasure. However, the essence of cruising satisfaction is to carry out a successful voyage requiring both skill and courage. There must be a large reser- voir of these qualities in the Royal Cruising Club.

Navigational details are somewhat sparse and the exceptional accuracy of some of the positions from radio bearings would perhaps astonish the makers of the instruments. No doubt it could be said that the end justified the means! Even the most sophisticated modern instruments do not absolve the navigator from keeping a good dead reckoning, of course.

This is a book for all seasons. What a pity the edition is limited!—E.W.M.

• Richard Gillis, of Pentire, Nev/quay, Cornwall, has produced two interest- ing booklets of sea stories covering the south west. Wrecks Around the Cornish Coast (price 2s.6d. postage 5d.) and A Sea Miscellany of Cornwall and the Isles of Stilly (price 5s., postage 9d.), both published by Harvey Barton Ltd., of Bristol, contain many rare wreck illustrations. For A Sea Miscellany . . . Mr.

Gillis gathered first-hand information by visits to the Isles of Scilly and Pen- zance. He pays tribute to Mr. Edwin Mills, of Redruth, 'whose files on ship- wrecks around Cornwall and Scilly can only be described as fantastic'.

• Commander Erroll Bruce has produced in Who's Who In Yachting (Nauti- cal Publishing Co., £4 4s.) a most valuable record of the achievements, interests, clubs and other personal details of leading figures in the yachting world. He rightly states that it is 'the first and only fully comprehensive guide to the personalities of yachting'. There are over 4,000 entries including both private individuals and firms of boatbuilders.

• 'The bodies started to come in with the tide just before dawn, clustered together, bobbing in through the surf to the beach a hundred feet below my hiding place.' So runs the prologue of James Graham's book, A Game for Heroes (Macmillan, price 21s.), which is a novel of high adventure set in the little Channel Island of 'St Pierre' during the German occupation in the last war. But, as the author points out, the island of St. Pierre does not exist in real life. A life-boat comes into the story and, what is more, Macmillan's are using an artist's impression of an R.N.L.I. life-boat as part of a countrywide publicity drive to launch the book.

• Two important new additions to life-boat station history have recently appeared. One is in the 'Wreck and Rescue' series and deals with the life-boats in Cardigan Bay and Anglesey. It has been written by Henry Parry and pub- lished by D. Bradford Barton Ltd. of Truro at 32s. The second is The Story of CornwaWs Life-boats by Cyril Noall and is published by Tor Mark Press, Truro, at 3s. 6d. These books will be reviewed in the July number..