New AcquisitionsThe Salty Shore; John Leather; new ed,.Seafarer Books, 2003; £10.95; CA 16244
The salty shore is the
Blackwater River area in Essex, a stretch of water the author has known since childhood.
Part memoir, part history, the book vividly evokes its past, and tells how fishermen
earned their livings from the oyster beds and how others just managed to earn theirs
working on the ‘Big Class’ yachts during the summers between the wars. This
reviewer remembers a wonderful weekend on the Blackwater River as a guest of the owner of Bodicea
CK 213, the oldest oyster smack still sailing, and can strongly recommend any
CA reader who has not yet sampled the delights of the area to find their way there as
quickly as possibly, preferably when the local oysters are in season.
Particularly enjoyable
are the anecdotes and asides of some of the locals that the author has collected. ‘Ah,
if I was a gentleman out for pleasure,’ one sighed as he watched some young yachtsmen
come ashore, ‘I wouldn’t never turn to windward.’ Haven’t we all
thought the same when slamming into particularly nasty sea! Augmented by some excellent
photographs by Douglas Went and other local photographers, the publishers have done us all
a favour keeping this classic in print. - ID
Page created 19 January 2004
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