This is an old-fashioned autobiography written by an eminent diving scientist - "jobs I did, things I achieved, the names of people I worked with and awards I won (see yet another handover picture)" - followed by swathes of footnotes and lists of achievements.
Professor Bennett is no slave to modesty. However, as readers come to realise as they progress through To The Very Depths, this book is written as self-justification for a distinguished career that was unexpectedly derailed.
Born in England in 1931, the author trained as an anaesthesiologist and later settled in the USA. He carried out important work on diver physiology under pressure, put a name to HDNS (High Pressure Nervous Syndrome) and, in the 1970s and '80s, was instrumental in developing the use of trimix at ever greater depths.
Bennett later founded Divers Alert Network (DAN) which, from a single phone, developed into one of the most influential international diving bodies in terms of research and diver insurance. He seems to take a fair bit of credit for work on deep stops, too.
But, in the early 2000s, it all turned ugly. Newer members of the DAN board - "outsider dissidents", as Bennett calls them - tried to oust him as president and chairman, amid unproven allegations of impropriety and nest-feathering aired in the press and then in court.
Bennett stood down earlier than planned and, instead of a smooth succession, he claims that DAN stalled for five years and, he reckons, lost millions of dollars as a result. It wouldn't be the first time in-fighting has rocked a non-profit organisation that had turned out to be rather good at making money.
The last section of the book makes a convincing if necessarily partial case in Peter Bennett's own defence, and there is no arguing with his achievements in moving diving forward. It's just a pity that these memoirs read like a very long CV.
Steve Weinman
Best Publishing
ISBN 978190536470
Hardback, 229p, US $21.95
