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It's winter and we have just moved into another Lockdown here in the UK I thought it would be good to run through a list of some great books out there about scuba diving in the UK. Scuba diving here in the UK offers some of the best scuba diving in the world with literally thousands of wrecks all around the coast, amazing rock, and reef formations, and a huge amount of marine life from whales to colourful tompot blennies, there is something for everyone, so with that in mind here is a list of some great reads to keep you busy over the next couple of months or some great ideas for Christmas presents to get eh scuba diver in your life.
The Diver's Tale
Synopsis
Britain is an island nation so, unsurprisingly, scuba diving is a popular British pastime enjoyed by some 50,000 keen participants and just as many of the armchair variety. A carefully-structured programme of training ensures that the British diver is well-prepared for the challenging conditions which may be encountered beneath our seas.
Or does it? How many trainee divers were taught about the perils of high-speed testicular trauma during descent? Or the dangers of having sex in a tent with a deaf person? Why bacon should be in your first aid kit. How to build a space shuttle using salvaged ammunition? Or why the name Valerie is so very special?
During a 40 year plus odyssey through the strange and exotic world of British diving, Nick Lyon and his disparate collection of buddies have answered all these questions from personal experience, and many more besides. It may not be pretty, it may not be painless but to those in the know, it’s real British diving.
This is not a diving manual — quite the opposite. How not to do it, why not to do it, when not to do it and who not to do it with. Amusing, frequently embarrassing, often unpleasant, and occasionally tragic, the book plunges into the world of the real British diver!
Click here to order your copy
Or does it? How many trainee divers were taught about the perils of high-speed testicular trauma during descent? Or the dangers of having sex in a tent with a deaf person? Why bacon should be in your first aid kit. How to build a space shuttle using salvaged ammunition? Or why the name Valerie is so very special?
During a 40 year plus odyssey through the strange and exotic world of British diving, Nick Lyon and his disparate collection of buddies have answered all these questions from personal experience, and many more besides. It may not be pretty, it may not be painless but to those in the know, it’s real British diving.
This is not a diving manual — quite the opposite. How not to do it, why not to do it, when not to do it and who not to do it with. Amusing, frequently embarrassing, often unpleasant, and occasionally tragic, the book plunges into the world of the real British diver!
Click here to order your copy
UK Dive Guide: Diving Guide to England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales
Synopsis
This is an exciting new diving guide covering dive sites in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Explore the wreck of the E39 submarine off Pembrokeshire or the stunning Cathedral Rock off St Abbs to the Unknown Coaster in Portland Harbour. In this title, 100 dives are described in detail from easy shore dives to more demanding boat dives. Dive locations are fully illustrated with specially commissioned maps and diagrams together with full colour photography throughout. All dives are above 18m and suitable for all levels of experience from novice to technical diver. The United Kingdom has some of the best diving available in Europe offering a mixture of scenic reef dives and spectacular wrecks. Wherever you are in the United Kingdom you are only a short distance away from one of these spectacular dives.
Click here to order your copy
This is an exciting new diving guide covering dive sites in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Explore the wreck of the E39 submarine off Pembrokeshire or the stunning Cathedral Rock off St Abbs to the Unknown Coaster in Portland Harbour. In this title, 100 dives are described in detail from easy shore dives to more demanding boat dives. Dive locations are fully illustrated with specially commissioned maps and diagrams together with full colour photography throughout. All dives are above 18m and suitable for all levels of experience from novice to technical diver. The United Kingdom has some of the best diving available in Europe offering a mixture of scenic reef dives and spectacular wrecks. Wherever you are in the United Kingdom you are only a short distance away from one of these spectacular dives.
Click here to order your copy
Wild and Temperate Seas: 50 Favourite UK Dives
Synopsis
From highlands to islands, wrecks to reefs and caves, Wild and Temperate Seas is a new-style guide which will whet your appetite for UK diving. These are over 50 personal favourites at some of the UK's most popular underwater destinations. Dorset Dives author Will Appleyard and his team of experienced collaborators share their picks as they showcase our beautiful coastal locations. Many of the dive sites featured in this new guide already appear regularly in avid UK divers' log books. Others are visited by only those with local knowledge and some rarely see divers at all. All are special in some way to those who have contributed and evidence for those to whom the UK underwater is still a mystery that once you tame these wild and temperate seas there really are some magnificent experiences to be had. As a wise man once said 'There's no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong thermal protection' (paraphrased). So, demist your mask and embrace the emerald, don your drysuit and conquer the cold... this book shows what incredible quality is waiting to be found if you just scratch the surface of UK diving. Wild and Temperate Seas is an introduction to some of the UK's best dives covering over 50 accessible sites in 15 beautiful locations across the nation. Includes wrecks and reefs, boat and shore dives. By experienced contributors and with stunning images by award-winning underwater photographers, this is the perfect gift for anyone new to or considering diving in the UK.
Click here to order your copy
From highlands to islands, wrecks to reefs and caves, Wild and Temperate Seas is a new-style guide which will whet your appetite for UK diving. These are over 50 personal favourites at some of the UK's most popular underwater destinations. Dorset Dives author Will Appleyard and his team of experienced collaborators share their picks as they showcase our beautiful coastal locations. Many of the dive sites featured in this new guide already appear regularly in avid UK divers' log books. Others are visited by only those with local knowledge and some rarely see divers at all. All are special in some way to those who have contributed and evidence for those to whom the UK underwater is still a mystery that once you tame these wild and temperate seas there really are some magnificent experiences to be had. As a wise man once said 'There's no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong thermal protection' (paraphrased). So, demist your mask and embrace the emerald, don your drysuit and conquer the cold... this book shows what incredible quality is waiting to be found if you just scratch the surface of UK diving. Wild and Temperate Seas is an introduction to some of the UK's best dives covering over 50 accessible sites in 15 beautiful locations across the nation. Includes wrecks and reefs, boat and shore dives. By experienced contributors and with stunning images by award-winning underwater photographers, this is the perfect gift for anyone new to or considering diving in the UK.
Click here to order your copy
Dorset Dives: A Guide to Scuba Diving Along the Jurassic Coast
Synopsis
Let Dorset Dives take you on a personal journey to 50 of the greatest dive sites the Dorset coastline has to offer. Here, there are so many opportunities to get wet and against one of the country's most beautiful backdrops - the Jurassic Coast. A UNESCO World Heritage site, the Dorset coast boasts seriously good scallop diving, sheltered, shallow or deep wrecks, scenic reef dives, easy shore dives and daring drifts. Will has chosen a selection of dive sites spanning the length of the Dorset coastline, all within a comfortable depth for the recreational diver and some of the sites featured will certainly require diving more than once. The wrecks are illustrated by Max Ellis, based on the original rough sketches John Liddiard made for DIVER magazine's `Wreck Tours' feature, with minimal coloured backgrounds added. With a Foreword by Paul Rose.
Click here to order your copy
Let Dorset Dives take you on a personal journey to 50 of the greatest dive sites the Dorset coastline has to offer. Here, there are so many opportunities to get wet and against one of the country's most beautiful backdrops - the Jurassic Coast. A UNESCO World Heritage site, the Dorset coast boasts seriously good scallop diving, sheltered, shallow or deep wrecks, scenic reef dives, easy shore dives and daring drifts. Will has chosen a selection of dive sites spanning the length of the Dorset coastline, all within a comfortable depth for the recreational diver and some of the sites featured will certainly require diving more than once. The wrecks are illustrated by Max Ellis, based on the original rough sketches John Liddiard made for DIVER magazine's `Wreck Tours' feature, with minimal coloured backgrounds added. With a Foreword by Paul Rose.
Click here to order your copy
Great British Marine Animals
Synopsis
An eye-opening celebration of the wonderful variety of animals that live in the seas around Britain. These creatures are colourful and visually appealing, and also show amazing versatility in their behaviour and lifestyles. So many of them, even those that can seem mundane at first glance, have intriguing and surprising ways of getting food, defending themselves, reproducing and interacting with one another. Beautiful sea anemones seize their prey with superbly armed tentacles, seemingly invincible crabs hide away while shedding their armour suits to grow, inoffensive-looking starfish exert huge forces to open up mussels and some fish can simply change sex when the situation demands. Great British Marine Animals is based on high quality underwater photographs and is designed to both aid identification of a wide range of common animals, and to give you an insight into their lives. It is written for anyone who loves the sea, enjoys exploring beaches or is interested in wildlife. The expanded 3rd Edition has details of 30 extra species, 240 new photographs and a foreword by The Wildlife Trusts and the Marine Conservation Society. With 320 pages and 600 colour photographs in total, there are details of the following types of marine animal: Sponges, cnidarians, sea anemones, corals, hydroids, jellyfish, worms, crustaceans, crabs, lobsters, prawns, shrimps, barnacles, molluscs, chitons, sea snails, sea slugs, bivalves, cuttlefish, octopus, squid, echinoderms, starfish, brittle stars, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, feather stars, sea squirts, fish including sharks, rays, eels, cod, pipefish, sea scorpions, gurnards, clingfish, mullet, bass, weevers, wrasse, blennies, gobies and flatfish.
Click here to order your copy
An eye-opening celebration of the wonderful variety of animals that live in the seas around Britain. These creatures are colourful and visually appealing, and also show amazing versatility in their behaviour and lifestyles. So many of them, even those that can seem mundane at first glance, have intriguing and surprising ways of getting food, defending themselves, reproducing and interacting with one another. Beautiful sea anemones seize their prey with superbly armed tentacles, seemingly invincible crabs hide away while shedding their armour suits to grow, inoffensive-looking starfish exert huge forces to open up mussels and some fish can simply change sex when the situation demands. Great British Marine Animals is based on high quality underwater photographs and is designed to both aid identification of a wide range of common animals, and to give you an insight into their lives. It is written for anyone who loves the sea, enjoys exploring beaches or is interested in wildlife. The expanded 3rd Edition has details of 30 extra species, 240 new photographs and a foreword by The Wildlife Trusts and the Marine Conservation Society. With 320 pages and 600 colour photographs in total, there are details of the following types of marine animal: Sponges, cnidarians, sea anemones, corals, hydroids, jellyfish, worms, crustaceans, crabs, lobsters, prawns, shrimps, barnacles, molluscs, chitons, sea snails, sea slugs, bivalves, cuttlefish, octopus, squid, echinoderms, starfish, brittle stars, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, feather stars, sea squirts, fish including sharks, rays, eels, cod, pipefish, sea scorpions, gurnards, clingfish, mullet, bass, weevers, wrasse, blennies, gobies and flatfish.
Click here to order your copy
Discover UK Diving: An Introduction & Personal Guide to UK Scuba Diving
Synopsis
Discover UK Diving has been created by a keen diver and amateur photographer Will Appleyard. His book has been designed to encourage newly qualified divers and "holiday divers" alike, into a diverse underwater world just waiting to be explored. Will's book is packed full of photographs, comprising stunning coastal scenery, divers in their element, and a selection of underwater shots taken while diving his favourite sites along the UK's south coast.
Those new to diving or curious about the sport may often wonder what UK diving has to offer them. "Discover UK Diving" showcases a selection of exciting dive sites, a beautiful array of sea life, and visibility often associated with diving abroad. The book is very much Will's personal account, written in a light-hearted manner, with those considering taking the next steps in mind.
Click here to order your copy
Discover UK Diving has been created by a keen diver and amateur photographer Will Appleyard. His book has been designed to encourage newly qualified divers and "holiday divers" alike, into a diverse underwater world just waiting to be explored. Will's book is packed full of photographs, comprising stunning coastal scenery, divers in their element, and a selection of underwater shots taken while diving his favourite sites along the UK's south coast.
Those new to diving or curious about the sport may often wonder what UK diving has to offer them. "Discover UK Diving" showcases a selection of exciting dive sites, a beautiful array of sea life, and visibility often associated with diving abroad. The book is very much Will's personal account, written in a light-hearted manner, with those considering taking the next steps in mind.
Click here to order your copy
Classic Darksite Diving: Cave Diving Sites of Britain and Europe
Synopsis
Classic Darksite Diving is the companion volume to Martyn Farr’s globally acclaimed manual of cave diving, Diving in Darkness. While its predecessor covers the techniques required to safely dive beneath an overhead environment, Classic Darksite Diving presents practical information on undertaking dives in carefully selected caves and mines in the UK and across Europe.
Gathered together in this concise but readable guidebook are details of 140 classic, popular and accessible dive sites that are suited to a wide range of abilities. Included are their precise locations, history of exploration, useful contacts and – most importantly – what each dive entails, from the preferred equipment to the dive length, depth and water conditions.
Lavishly illustrated with photographs and surveys, Classic Darksite Diving provides the essential information you need to enjoy many varied and safe dives in the exciting realm of cavern and cave diving. A spectacular underground world awaits you.
Click here to order your copy
Classic Darksite Diving is the companion volume to Martyn Farr’s globally acclaimed manual of cave diving, Diving in Darkness. While its predecessor covers the techniques required to safely dive beneath an overhead environment, Classic Darksite Diving presents practical information on undertaking dives in carefully selected caves and mines in the UK and across Europe.
Gathered together in this concise but readable guidebook are details of 140 classic, popular and accessible dive sites that are suited to a wide range of abilities. Included are their precise locations, history of exploration, useful contacts and – most importantly – what each dive entails, from the preferred equipment to the dive length, depth and water conditions.
Lavishly illustrated with photographs and surveys, Classic Darksite Diving provides the essential information you need to enjoy many varied and safe dives in the exciting realm of cavern and cave diving. A spectacular underground world awaits you.
Click here to order your copy
Great British Shipwrecks
Synopsis
For more than 30 years, internationally acclaimed wreck diver and best-selling author, Rod Macdonald, has surveyed and researched shipwrecks around the world. His books such as Dive Scapa Flow and The Darkness Below are household names in the diving world.
In Great British Shipwrecks Rod uses his encyclopaedic knowledge and an intimate understanding of shipwrecks, gleaned from a lifetime’s diving, to provide a snapshot in time of some of the best known and most revered shipwrecks around the UK. For each of the 37 shipwrecks covered Rod provides a dramatic account of its time afloat and its eventual sinking – with each wreck being beautifully illustrated by renowned marine artist Rob Ward.
Rod’s journey around the UK starts with the classic recreational diving shipwrecks at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands from giants such as the German WWI battleships, Markgraf, König and Kronprinz Wilhelm, to the legendary WWI British cruiser HMS Hampshire on which Lord Kitchener perished on a voyage to Russia in 1916. Rod then travels to the English Channel where he covers such famous ships as the P&O liners Moldavia and Salsette which were lost during WWI with many others such as the SS Kyarra and the British submarine HMS/M M2 – the first submarine to carry a seaplane for reconnaissance.
The reader is then taken to the North Channel of the Irish Sea where the famous technical diving wrecks of the White Star liner Justicia, HMS Audacious, the first British battleship lost during WWI, and the SS Empire Heritage, which was lost with its deck cargo of Sherman tanks on a voyage from New York during WWII, are beautifully illustrated. Returning to Scotland, the famous West Coast shipwrecks such as the Thesis, Hispania, Rondo and Shuna in the Sound of Mull grace the pages, in addition to the renowned wrecks of the SS Breda, lost near Oban, and the WWII minelayer HMS Port Napier off Skye. Lastly, Rod covers some major North Sea shipwrecks, revealing for the first time the haunting remains of HMS Pathfinder, the first Royal Navy warship to be sunk by U-boat torpedo during WWI.
This is a beautifully illustrated and definitive guide to the greatest shipwrecks around the UK and will be an enlightening and unmissable book for many.
Click here to order your copy
For more than 30 years, internationally acclaimed wreck diver and best-selling author, Rod Macdonald, has surveyed and researched shipwrecks around the world. His books such as Dive Scapa Flow and The Darkness Below are household names in the diving world.
In Great British Shipwrecks Rod uses his encyclopaedic knowledge and an intimate understanding of shipwrecks, gleaned from a lifetime’s diving, to provide a snapshot in time of some of the best known and most revered shipwrecks around the UK. For each of the 37 shipwrecks covered Rod provides a dramatic account of its time afloat and its eventual sinking – with each wreck being beautifully illustrated by renowned marine artist Rob Ward.
Rod’s journey around the UK starts with the classic recreational diving shipwrecks at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands from giants such as the German WWI battleships, Markgraf, König and Kronprinz Wilhelm, to the legendary WWI British cruiser HMS Hampshire on which Lord Kitchener perished on a voyage to Russia in 1916. Rod then travels to the English Channel where he covers such famous ships as the P&O liners Moldavia and Salsette which were lost during WWI with many others such as the SS Kyarra and the British submarine HMS/M M2 – the first submarine to carry a seaplane for reconnaissance.
The reader is then taken to the North Channel of the Irish Sea where the famous technical diving wrecks of the White Star liner Justicia, HMS Audacious, the first British battleship lost during WWI, and the SS Empire Heritage, which was lost with its deck cargo of Sherman tanks on a voyage from New York during WWII, are beautifully illustrated. Returning to Scotland, the famous West Coast shipwrecks such as the Thesis, Hispania, Rondo and Shuna in the Sound of Mull grace the pages, in addition to the renowned wrecks of the SS Breda, lost near Oban, and the WWII minelayer HMS Port Napier off Skye. Lastly, Rod covers some major North Sea shipwrecks, revealing for the first time the haunting remains of HMS Pathfinder, the first Royal Navy warship to be sunk by U-boat torpedo during WWI.
This is a beautifully illustrated and definitive guide to the greatest shipwrecks around the UK and will be an enlightening and unmissable book for many.
Click here to order your copy
The Diver's Guide to Marine Life of Britain and Ireland: Second Edition
Synopsis
This completely revised and greatly expanded Second Edition of the popular Diver's Guide to Marine Life of Britain and Ireland, covers almost 300 individual species and groups of species seen underwater, from tiny fragile sea spiders to the massive plankton-feeding Basking Shark. This guide aims to introduce divers and snorkellers to the most common and identifiable animals and plants they will encounter underwater, both widely distributed species and some of the specialities of different areas. - 265 individual species descriptions, each with information on habitat, size, depth range and distribution in easy to use icon format - Text emphasising the key features for identification of each species and possible confusions - Underwater photographs showing each species as the diver or snorkeller would see it - A unique `confidence guide' to identify which species are easily recognised and which are likely to require confirmation - Over 30 additional groups of plants and animals that cannot be identified individually underwater, but can be important features of the living community - Information on marine habitats, conservation status and non-native species in British and Irish waters.
Click here to order your copy
if you are looking for something else to keep you busy while during the lockdown and overwinter while we can't travel why not check out our quiz page?
This completely revised and greatly expanded Second Edition of the popular Diver's Guide to Marine Life of Britain and Ireland, covers almost 300 individual species and groups of species seen underwater, from tiny fragile sea spiders to the massive plankton-feeding Basking Shark. This guide aims to introduce divers and snorkellers to the most common and identifiable animals and plants they will encounter underwater, both widely distributed species and some of the specialities of different areas. - 265 individual species descriptions, each with information on habitat, size, depth range and distribution in easy to use icon format - Text emphasising the key features for identification of each species and possible confusions - Underwater photographs showing each species as the diver or snorkeller would see it - A unique `confidence guide' to identify which species are easily recognised and which are likely to require confirmation - Over 30 additional groups of plants and animals that cannot be identified individually underwater, but can be important features of the living community - Information on marine habitats, conservation status and non-native species in British and Irish waters.
Click here to order your copy
if you are looking for something else to keep you busy while during the lockdown and overwinter while we can't travel why not check out our quiz page?