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Maltese Islands Diving Guide by Ned Middleton
Maltese Islands Diving Guide by Ned Middleton
IT SEEMS that wherever you want to go diving, be it in search of the lost island of Atlantis or in a village pond in Ambridge, a diver's guide of some sort has been written about it. Maltese Islands Diving Guide by Ned Middleton seeks to add another well-established diving spot to the list.
To be fair, the book is a well-presented and interesting piece of work. It opens with a brief summary of Malta's turbulent past and leads the reader through a number of good introductory sections on general diving conditions, wreck diving, flora and fauna and environmental hazards. Then comes the meat: detailed descriptions of 28 dive sites.
For ease of reference each is dealt with in a standard format: a map and illustration precedes a comprehensive section describing the location, the dive itself and tips on photographic possibilities.
This layout is easy to follow and in each case the text is supported by four or five good colour pictures per page. Their richness gives the book much of its appeal.
If Ned Middleton had chosen to call this book The Holiday Diver's Guide to the Maltese Islands, my only grumble would be about some of the strange terminology he uses.
In the section about a World War Two Blenheim bomber, for example, he talks about the 'English Air Force', the aircraft's 'control lever' and even speculates about the crew 'ejecting' prior to the crash. He is equally uncertain about the difference between a fuselage and a tailplane, and there are many similar errors.
However, my main worry is the claim that the book describes the most outstanding dive sites around Malta and Gozo. While certainly interesting, the wrecks of HMS Maori, the Carolita barge and a deliberately scuttled diver attraction (a tug) in no way deserve the tag of 'outstanding'. One or two other sites fall into the same category.
As a holiday guide this book will prove very useful to those making their first trip to Malta. But no one should make the mistake of believing that the sites described are the best the islands have to offer. They aren't - not by a long chalk.
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Maltese Islands Diving Guide by Ned Middleton, Swan Hill Press 01743 235651. Hardback£16.95.
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