Books The Story Of The Dover Lifeboats The Story Of The Hoylake and West Kirby Lifeboats written and published by Jeff Morris, prices in text Jeff Morris, Honorary Archivist of the Lifeboat Enthusiasts' Society, continues his prolific chronicling and updating of the lifeboat stations around our coasts with these volumes, both updated second editions which bring the histories up to 1988.

As usual the author lists all the lifeboats which have been on station and relates some of the more interesting services.

Dover, being on a particularly busy stretch of water has had its share of incidents, and in the 1930s was also the base for one of the Institution's more unusual lifeboats - the 64ft, 17-knot Sir William Hillary, built to cope with the possibility of an aeroplane crash in the Channel as commercial aviation began to grow.

Hoylake has a long history of lifeboats, the first being established there as early as 1803, when the area was a sparsely populated peninsula and before the present community existed.

West Kirby may have been a later arrival on the scene, opening with an inflatable in 1966, just three years after the RNLI introduced them, but in its 20-plus years it has been a busy and active station.

Jeff Morris's well-researched and exhaustive histories make fascinating reading, not just for those who know the area but for anyone with an interest in lifeboats.

The Story Of The Dover Lifeboats is available from Mrs Post at 9 Tower Hamlets Street, Dover, Kent at £1.50 (plus 25p post and packing) and The Story of The Hoylake and West Kirby Lifeboats from Mr R. D.

Jones at 6 Eaton Road, West Kirby, Wirral, Merseyside at £1.25 (plus 25p p&p).

An Illustrated Guide To Our Lifeboat Stations - Part 3 written and published by Jeff Morris, £1.50 plus 25p post and packing The third part of Jeff Morris's guide, which he hopes will eventually cover every lifeboat station around our coasts, takes in the area from Sheerness in Kent to Poole in Dorset.

The listings are necessarily brief, but include the names of all lifeboats at the station, the dates they were in service, medals awarded to crew members, any accidents and a brief note of any other points of interest.

Most entries have at least one photograph of the station or boathouse.

Of particular interest to historians is the inclusion of stations which have subsequently been closed, and photographs and details of buildings no longer in use.Sussex Shipwrecks by Nicholas Thornton, published by Countryside Books at £4.95 ISBN 0 905392 97 3 Nicholas Thornton's account of some of the many wrecks along the Sussex coast ranges from incidents in the late 17th century to the 1950s, and provides vivid accounts of some of the most spectacular disasters.

The incidents which come in for examination range as widely as the dates, from sailing men of war, through yachts and German submarines to a wreck which led to thousands of oranges and lemons being washed ashore and provided the beachcombers of Worthing with the materials for almost limitless marmalade.

The final chapter recounts the loss of the Rye lifeboat with all 17crewin 1917,andthe book's final, poignant photograph of the Rye lifeboat station, its doors bricked up after the lifeboat's loss and the closure of the station, seems a fitting and sobering way to end the tales.

Shipwrecks of the Isle of Wight by Ken Phillips, published by David and Charles at £9.95 ISBN 0-7153-8816-9 The Mary Rose and the Royal George may be two of the most famous ships to have sunk off the Isle of Wight, but they are far from the only ones - many hundreds having met their fate in these waters over the years.

Ken Phillips' book chronicles many of the more dramatic sinkings up to and including the Second World War, and also looks at the historical background to shipwreck, and the rights and actions of those on the shore.

Early photographs add poignancy to many of the events, and first-hand accounts are frequent. One of them throws light on the difficulty of navigating in the 19th century, when a survivor of the wreck of the Irex comments sardonically of the ship's master: 'He must have been very wrong for us to have been wrecked on the Isle of Wight on a voyage from Glasgow to Rio...'.

The RNLI is scarcely mentioned, but the book is a very readable account of the many wrecks in the waters of the Wight.

Shipwrecks of Orkney, Shetland and Pentland Firth by David M. Ferguson, published by David and Charles at £9.95 ISBN 07153 90570 Shipwrecks of Orkney, Shetland and Pentland Firth is a sister volume to the similarly titled work on the waters around the Isle of Wight reviewed above and, although by a different author, follows a similar style.

There are some 1,500 documented wrecks in the area from Viking times to the present day, and the book examines a representative cross-section of the incidents, relating them to the changing trade patterns in the area.

Starting with a brief account of the earliest recorded shipwreck in 1148 the book covers the changing pattern of seafaring up to the most modern incident in 1979.

A separate chapter on famous rescues is included, in which the coxswains of the local lifeboats figure largely with Silver Medal services, as do the pilots of helicopters involved in rescues in the area.The History of Yachting by Ranulf Rayner, paintings by Tim Thompson, published by David and Charles at £35 ISBN 07153 91887 Although the text in this magnificently produced large-format book makes fascinating reading, it is the spendidly reproduced full-page paintings by Devonbased artist Tim Thompson which really make this volume stand apart from others on the shelves.

Starting with the square-rigged Waterwitch of the 1830s the series of 35 paintings takes the reader through the earliest days of yachting to the Big Class of the 1930s and on to the innovative 12 Metre Australia 11, which brought the America's Cup back to life in 1983 when she fought back to win a last-race duel and snatch the cup away from American domination.

No single book can hope to give a detailed history of such acomplex subject, but Ranulf Rayner has chosen many significant points along the way, and amplified them in informative style.

An impressive book, which will be enjoyed by yachtsmen and admirers of marine art alike - and which will benefit the RNLI since part of the proceeds will be donated to the RNLI..