This slim volume is designed to complement the documentary Shark Attack Britain, made by author Richard Peirce with film-maker John Boyle, and previewed at Dive 2010 in October.
The book details “attacks” by sharks on humans in home waters, some remote in time, and extending to bizarre dry-land occurrences in vans and even in toilets.
But the real bite comes at the end when Peirce, the chairman of the Shark Trust and the Shark Conservation Society, turns the anti-shark propaganda on its head and reveals the scale of the real threat which, as divers all know, is not to humans.
His aim is to connect in any way he can with all those people who still take their cue from Jaws.
The book appears to have been put together in a bit of a hurry, and it’s a pity that the more modern stories are told in the third person, only to then be reprised in first-person accounts quoted from the film. Deftly combining the two would have upped the suspense a notch.
Whether the film goes on to TV or to DVD remains to be seen, but in the meantime this is a bit of fun with a serious message behind it.
Steve Weinman
Shark Cornwall
ISBN: 9780955869426
Softback, 54pp, £4.99
