Coast: A Celebration of Britain's Coastal Heritage [Paperback]

Having being glued to each programme in the BBC TV
series we have to admit that we were really looking
forward to seeing, and reading, the book.

Expecting something of a larger 'tome', it was
somewhat disappointing to find only 192 pages in
mid-size paperback format.

The book is divided into two, the first part being
dedicated to the 12 coastal regions explored in the TV
series. The second part is a handy and clearly laid out
reference section indexing places, people, natural
history, historic events and facts to help one plan a trip
to an individual region.

It is undoubtedly a superbly illustrated book, but is sadly lacking in the text to
support the breath-taking photography -
almost as if the job of getting the book to press has
been rushed.
As a group with an interest in the North of Scotland, we
were really disappointed with this section. The TV
programme showed the 'Whaligoe Steps', south of Wick,
but there is no mention of this fantastic Caithness landmark in the book.
It would be fair to say that the BBC series had a certain mystery attached to it in that each programme might well touch on a childhood memory or a place revisited
and I guess this is impossible to carry into the book.
As a parting note, I guess we should remind ourselves that we are
reviewing the book and not the TV series!

Well, it is beautifully illustrated, although you do feel that it would have benefited from being physically bigger, from having a chance to display its images on a grander scale. But it does seem to offer loads of photographs with only limited text to support them. Having seen the television programmes, maybe you want something more substantial, something to flesh out the geology, geography, and history of each of the myriad landscapes and seascapes the camera visits.

Perhaps that's the problem. Given the shape of the British Isles, there are few of us who have not had some intimate contact with the sea - if not brought up on the coastline, few live more than 30 miles from it, and virtually everyone will have a beach or stretch of shore they knew as a child or visited regularly at some point.

Most of us have some sort of intimacy with the sea and the coastline - watching the television, I could rejoice in revisiting places I have lived (London, Liverpool and Cardiff), but I most wanted to see the Solway Firth of my childhood and youth. There's an element of excitement in following the TV programmes, looking forward to the night when the cameras with get to your special stretch of coast. That element of anticipation isn't present in the book. You can just turn to the right page.

And the page doesn't seem very substantial. It's well written and informative. It is an excellent stimulus, an excuse to get out there, to go fossil hunting, to start studying geology, to take an interest in local history, to watch the wildlife, to worry about pollution, to decide you want to paint or photograph. That's the problem! The coast is such a potent stimulus, has so many facets, has so much magnetism, once your enthusiasm has been fired, a whole shelf full of encyclopaedias won't satisfy your curiosity or thirst for knowledge.

The television programme is a first class stimulus to action. The book is interesting, informative, and a useful little reference volume to have to hand - nice pictures, convenient text, some useful addresses and contacts at the back. But, of preference, you'd buy the DVD first ... and hopefully get yourself back down to the shoreline with a fresh perspective and renewed interest.

There is hardly any text, with a handful of pages devoted to massive stretches of coastline. The pictures aren't that great either and many don't convey a sense of wanting to visit the places being described.

The last third of the book is a a useful guide to what can be seen along the various stretches of coastline, what to do and where you can stay. This is very useful.

For me, the book would have worked so much better with fewer but better pictures and the Gazetteer section embedded within the book itself.

Such a shame.