• Much in demand in recent years but soon out of print after its appearance in 1958, Cyril Jolly's book HenryBlogg ofCromer (George Harrap.

£1.90) has been reprinted with the usual illustrations.

Joining the Cromer, Norfolk, life-boatin 1894 at the age of 18, Henry Blogg in later years won the R.N.L.I.'s gold medal three times and the silver medal four times. Among his other awards were the George Cross and the British Empire Medal. Henry Blogg, whose exploits are so well known in R.N.L.I. circles, died in 1954. At £1.90 this book is good value.—C.R.E.

0 A History of Yachting in Pictures, by Peter Heaton (Tom Stacey, price £3.90), is a beautifully illustrated book—the pictures are in black and white and colour—at a very modest price by an author of the classic, Sailing, published in 1949.

The author, who has owned many boats and has known the sea in many moods, has also written other books of nautical interest. He writes:'Yachting as we know it today . . . and as practised by the general run of what we may term "yachtsmen", which includes racing and cruising and the social function of the "yacht club", is a development from the original Dutch conception. The word yacht is a Dutch word. . . . In the same dictionary "jaght, jaghte, or jaght schip" are given as meaning a swift, light-built vessel of war, a ship which, probably designed in the first instance for naval use, came to be used also for commerce and pleasure.' The contents are dealt with under the following headings: Origins and Definitions, Yachts of the Stuart Court, The First Yacht Clubs, 1838 to 1919, 1919 to 1939, Yachting Since 1945 and a look at the future.—C.R.E.

% In Inflatable Boats by John Watney (Ian Allan, £2.50), the author's obvious enthusiasm for this type of craft is very apparent. The book covers every facet of inflatable boating from the historical, through the construction and handling, to the use of inflatables for exploration.

One chapter is devoted to the R.N.L.I. inflatables and another covers the rigid inflatables which are now coming into service with the R.N.L.I. The book is copiously illustrated, most of the photographs being attributed to the author. One photograph showing a man, carrying a child, stepping from a yacht into an inflatable tender, looks, however, a most unseamanlike manoeuvre, but otherwise the photographs illustrate the text very well. Nearly half of the book is taken up with descriptions of currently available inflatable boats. This information may become out of date fairly quickly, but apart from this, it could become a standard reference book on inflatable boats.—R.D.P.

• There is a widely held opinion among landsmen—we won't call them lubbers—that sailors tie knots which will not come undone.

This, like so many land based ideas, is totally erroneous. Sailors make knots, but more often bends and hitches, which will come undone but only when required. Few things are more infuriating or liable to be more dangerous aboard any craft than a solidly jammed bend or hitch. In The Marlinspike Sailor (David & Charles, £2.95) Hervey Garrett Smith has described and clearly illustrated enough rope manipulating to see any enthusiastic seaman through his seafaring life, and spare time. That it is also lighthearted may be judged from the description of a heaving line, given to a small boy, as something for sailors to hang on to when they are seasick!—E.W.M..