Seashore Life of Southern California, New and Revised edition Book

This effervescently enjoyable book covers several genera, there is an element of travel journal as Trevor Norton tells us about the many places he has travelled to and through in his studies of marine life. There is an elements of natural history, ecology and of science in general so gracefully presented to the reader that it should be equally pleasing to scientists and non-scientists alike. There is an element of memoir, as we follow the author's career as a scientist.

In Underwater, we accompany the author on his lifelong journey from beach to beach, seaweed to seaweed, snorkelling and diving his way around the world. Starting as a child by the beach, continuing as he went to uni and studied marine biology, Northumberland, Devon, the Isle of Mann and the Canary Islands are just a few of the places this book takes you. The truest beauty of this book was the writing style which I found very readable, entirely enjoyable and joyful. The quirky humour with which the author views the world is perfectly complements by the lovely little illustrations that pepper the pages of the book, done, I believe by the authors wife. Along the way the authors fascination for each topic is so infectious that I found myself becoming passionate about them as well, even the seaweed which I barely tolerated back when I was studying, I was enchanted by.

The biggest thing for me was that this book was indeed, as the subtitle says "A love affair with the sea" this was what I read it for and it did not disappoint. The fascination and love of the author for the seas and oceans of the world is a joy to read, all the way through. One of the things I realised about a hundred pages in, is that of all the books I have read about the sea this is one that feels most descriptive and which you feel the strongest sense of the different seas. It took me a while to pinpoint why I found this odd, but unlike many other books, in Underwater not all the text is given to the sea. The countries and towns, people and cultures, history and terrestrial ecology all feature too and eventually I came to see that this background information served as a setting, a framework if you will, to make the marine themes so much more vivid and real.

For a while I have been seeking out books that can re-ignite the breathless, boundless wonder for the marine world that I used to have, the encompassing wonder of the ocean and everything that lives in it, this book Idoes exactly that.