MORGAN
01-14-2008, 09:50 AM
I just finished Graham Balcombe's book "A Glimmering in Darkness", edited by Duncan Price
and published 2007 by the British Cave Diving Group. An excellent book - lots of history about the beginnings of British cave diving starting in the 1930's, up into the mid-1950's. Much of it is original source material from the logs and notebooks kept by the divers at the time. They were very determined - not only were they inventing equipment and techniques as they went along, but they were bicycling many miles to the caves hauling all their gear in rucksacks or in a little trailer!
This book is produced by "Lulu" - they have it in electronic format, and when you order it, they print it off, bind it up, and mail it out. I had no experience with such a process, and half expected a poorly put together product of some desktop publishing operation in someone's cellar. What I got was a nicely bound hardcover book with well reproduced photos - much higher quality than I had anticipated.
I read "A Glimmering in Darkness" with my old favorite copy of Martyn Farr's "The Darkness Beckons" close at hand. They complement each other very well; Farr's book goes into more detail on some events that were just mentioned in passing in "A Glimmering", and has more photos. (Especially of the AFLOLAUN, a piece of equipment described in "A Glimmering", that has to be seen to be appreciated!) Balcombe's book has the advantage of being the original source material - written by the people doing the dives! A great book - anyone interested in the beginnings of cave diving should read it.
Mike
and published 2007 by the British Cave Diving Group. An excellent book - lots of history about the beginnings of British cave diving starting in the 1930's, up into the mid-1950's. Much of it is original source material from the logs and notebooks kept by the divers at the time. They were very determined - not only were they inventing equipment and techniques as they went along, but they were bicycling many miles to the caves hauling all their gear in rucksacks or in a little trailer!
This book is produced by "Lulu" - they have it in electronic format, and when you order it, they print it off, bind it up, and mail it out. I had no experience with such a process, and half expected a poorly put together product of some desktop publishing operation in someone's cellar. What I got was a nicely bound hardcover book with well reproduced photos - much higher quality than I had anticipated.
I read "A Glimmering in Darkness" with my old favorite copy of Martyn Farr's "The Darkness Beckons" close at hand. They complement each other very well; Farr's book goes into more detail on some events that were just mentioned in passing in "A Glimmering", and has more photos. (Especially of the AFLOLAUN, a piece of equipment described in "A Glimmering", that has to be seen to be appreciated!) Balcombe's book has the advantage of being the original source material - written by the people doing the dives! A great book - anyone interested in the beginnings of cave diving should read it.
Mike