• Ever since John Corin retired from his job as public relations officer at the Port of Bristol in 1981 and returned to his native Cornwall, he has been actively publicising the RNLI. He revised and expanded the Penlee station history which he wrote with the late Grahame Farr and the new edition was published in 1983 (see THE LIFEBOAT, Summer 1983). His latest work, Sennen Cove and Its Lifeboat, is similar in its excellent presentation, profuse illustrations and thorough research. The book goes beyond the history of the lifeboat station to look at all aspects of life in the Cove: fishing, coastguards, lighthouses and the 'free trade and salvage activities'.

Many of the photographs are from local collections, and the captions are short stories in themselves. There is not space to cover every incident in detail, as some lifeboat histories attempt to do, but those described are therefore the more fascinating. For instance, an account of a launch in 1977, in a north westerly force 10 gale (when according to the rules the boat cannot launch at all): 'A combination of skilful handling under hellish conditions, inherently good design and benign Providence brought her round in time and after taking a battering such as no boat should ever be subjected to, during which she reared, plunged and twisted like some demented wild animal..." Sennen's most famous recent rescue was the remarkable service to the Icelandic vessel Tungufoss in 1981 when 11 men were saved thanks to superb cooperation with a Royal Navy helicopter.

In a foreword to the book, the President of Iceland, who presented medals to the lifeboat and helicopter crews, writes, 'A book like the present one is of great value as a record of human endeavour.

Let us hope that we can leave behind sufficient records of this type so that we have reason to feel proud when coming generations read the history of our time.' Sennen Cove and Its Lifeboat is available at £2.95 (£3.45 including postage and packing) from The Honorary Secretary, Sennen Cove RNLI, 'Ardmor', Cove Road, Sennen, Penzance, Cornwall, TR19 7BP.—R.K.

• Total Loss, edited by Jack Coote, published by Adlard Coles Ltd, price £12.95, is a fascinating collection of selected accounts written by people who have survived the loss of a yacht at sea.

The stories are grouped under the principal causes, including adverse weather, equipment failure, faulty navigation, collision, fire and explosion, and in themselves make exciting and gripping reading with the added zest ofbeing accounts of actual events. Each story is short enough to be enjoyed in its own right, whilst the message of how quickly and unexpectedly disaster can strike is repeatedly punched home.

Some of the stories, when the loss has taken place close to the shores of the British Isles, end with the arrival of the local lifeboat.

The final section of the book has been devoted to lessons and conclusions from each story and is a thought-provoking analysis for anyone interested or engaged in sailing. A most readable book both for the enthusiastic yachtsman and the casual reader.—G.P.• Anyone reading Robin Aisher's book Yacht Skipper (Fernhurst Books, £5.95), even someone knowing little about the art, would begin to appreciate the difficulties of steering with a tiller downwind in a breeze or some of the important facts to consider when buying a compass for a yacht. The good thing about Mr Aisher's book is that it is easy to understand. It is written in a downto- earth style and has good, clear photographs which give you a feel of the excitement of skippering a yacht, and there are also plenty of explanatory diagrams. The photographs are undoubtedly an outstanding feature; they were specially taken for the book on board Robin Aisher's yacht Yeoman during the One Ton Cup. All the royalties from Yacht Skipper are being given, through the generosity of the author, to the RNLI and the book is available through the Institution's trading company.—S.J.G.

• Also recently published by Fernhurst Books are: The Rules in Practice, by Bryan Willis (£4.95) and Tuning your Dinghy by Lawrie Smith (£4.95).

• The ninth edition of Graham Danton's The Theory and Practice of Seamanship (Routledge & Kegan Paul, £19.50), as with the first, is aimed primarily at those studying for British Certificates of Competency. The revisions to the text include full metrication although the author has sensibly included the imperial equivalent to assist those readers who are not fully conversantconversant with the metric system. The new edition also covers regulations for preventing collisions at sea and those on oil pollution, survival in extreme cold and the 'sailing factor' of large disabled tankers. Modern thought on stranding and collision is considered together with the acceptance that the practice of carrying out anchors in ships' lifeboats is now judged to be obsolete.

It is unfortunate that coloured diagrams are obviously too expensive to include; nevertheless, the nineteen chapters comprehensively cover many aspects of seamanship for the professional seafarer studying for Certificates of Competency. This excellent textbook also provides much interest to everyone connected with the profession and a source of reference for experienced seafarers.—c.p.

• Obviously, before reading Maldwin Drummond's masterly work The Riddle (Nautical Books, £10.95), one must have not only read The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers, but also been entranced to the extent of, quite literally, being unable to put it down. It has, over the last eighty years, become something of a cult and anybody who has not read this most remarkable story is denying himself a bewitching experience.

Mr Drummond candidly confesses his own enchantment and would certainly have been completely at home with Davies and Carruthers in the cabin of the Dulcibella. Their influence, apart from encouraging him in his own first voyagings, is apparent in this book of his in which he in turn captivates the reader and carries him beyond the confines of the original story. The view he presents of the political intrigue at work in Europe at the turn of the last century is quite fascinating even to one with no interest in political history.

A very great deal of hard work and exacting research has gone into this book and the rewarding result—not least the history and description of the Vixen and her metamorphosis into the Dulcibella, with all the controversy regarding her alleged anticendents as an RNLI lifeboat—is as captivating a voyage as that made by the Dulcibella herself all those years ago.—B.A.

• The sea has a habit of creating heroes and there are surely few more heroic acts than a crewmember leaving the heaving cockpit, descending into the galley, marshalling pots, pans, ingredients and his or her own powers to combat or ignore intense nausea and, after a cacophony to match the sound of two armour-clad medieval knights in mortal combat, proffering grey-green faced through the hatch a succession of miraculously steaming plates of something for a hungry but often unsympathetic crew.

The Sailing Cook Book compiled by Kitty Hampton (Willow Books, Collins,£6.95) goes as far as any book can to prepare the luckless cook for the worst they are likely to face by offering recipes in categories: Beaufort wind scale 0-2, 3-6, 7-12. The last of these includes such morale boosters as tiddie oggie, a recipe sent in by Bumble Ogilvie Wedderburn, the cook aboard ADC Accutrac when she took part in the 1977-78 Round the World race with Clare Francis as skipper. Tiddie oggie is a sort of pie filled with meat, sweetcorn, tomatoes, onions and 'any leftovers from the galley'.

At the other end of the scale there are recipes to make you dream of those occasions when, after a good, lively day's sail the wind has stilled, you have anchored for the night in a quiet cove or inlet and as you relax with chilled aperitif, the warm evening air is enhanced with the subtle bouquet of Glynn Christian's chicken with minted avocado or the Duchess of Norfolk's gnocchi Parisienne wafting from the galley below.

The book also has comprehensive chapters on how to keep the galley shipshape, on preservation and stowage of stores and indeed on how to cope with seasickness. Some well-known people have contributed recipes, many of which are fun to read as well as practical, and all royalties from the book are going to the Jubilee Sailing Trust.—E.W-W • Other books recently published include: Two Yachts, Two Voyages by Eric C. Hiscock (Adlard Coles Ltd, £7.95); Competent Crew by Pat Langley-Price and Philip Ouvry (Adlard Coles Ltd, £6.95) and Cruising: Coastwise and Beyond by Colin Jarman (Nautical Books, £10.95)..