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The Shipwrecks Off North East Norfolk by Ayer Tikus
The Shipwrecks Off North East Norfolk by Ayer Tikus
Is the day of the complete diving guide in book form nearly over? Probably not yet, but the breakdown of these valuable information books into two separate operations has already started. First you read the book and then, for the guts of diving information, you have to consult a website.
An example is The Shipwrecks off North East Norfolk, and for this paper-and-web split you can blame author Stephen Holt, who shelters under the pen-name of Ayer Tikus.
In March I reviewed his first book, The Shipwrecks off North Norfolk, and wrote that it filled a big gap in wreck-diving literature, listing 150 wrecks with diving detail and pictures or silhouettes of the ships.
I expected to be able to say something similar about the follow-up, but while it is valuable for the details of 250 ships, pictures and silhouettes, all the diving detail is missing.
Stephen Holt is not a diver, and such detail in his previous book was credited to local divers, but this time you have to go to his website to find it for each wreck.
Holt says this is because 'any report on a wreck becomes out of date within a few months', and he can keep the website up to date. Even so, I think this division devalues the book for wreck-divers. What happens if they, while at sea, have to change from the wreck which they had checked out online to another some distance away?
I'm afraid the idea that a wreck changes appreciably 'within a few months' does not fit my experience, and I would like to see the diving detail restored in the next edition.
Only then will this otherwise excellent book fill another big gap in wreck-diving literature.
Kendall McDonald
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The Shipwrecks Off North East Norfolk by Ayer Tikus (Ayer Tikus Publications, www.ship-wrecks.co.uk). Softback, 112pp, £18
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