Seaborn

Tabb House 1984, 143pp,line drawings, 0-907018-246, £3.25,

Although not identifying the setting directly, this attractively covered paperback embraces a spring to winter season in the lives of fictional humans and creatures living on the Camel Ewstuary in Cornwall. The daily struggles of two fisher folk and some birds and fish are certainly portrayed vividly enough, but its anthropomorphic leanings mix the metaphor too much and there is little natural division in the narrative between the thoughts of people and the personified fish and birds. Perhaps some reported speech between the man and his female working partner would have helped. It is a little too incredible for my taste, which is unfortunate because this little book certainly provokes thoughts on the hard living to be won from the sea. EC