A Tenby Lifeboat Family (Star of Pembrokeshire Series) [Paperback]

of the modern world? Could it be that we've somehow lost our way by

disengaging from our roots? Exploring the relationship between Tenby

and its Lifeboat could help you gain an undersanding ... and with the

gift of hindsight, as Shakespeare would have said, "Perchance to Dream"

... Tenby's the oldest town in Wales with the archaeological evidence

revealing habitation dating back thousands of years: the Castle Hill an

Iron Age fortress, caves at Penally and Caldy Island inhabited in the

Stone Age. Yet Tenby is still Tenby almost as if the peninsula on which

it stands, protected by sea and town walls, cocoons an oasis ... Very

much 'living' history and, as such, is a veritable time-capsule of the

world of yesteryear making a contrast with the world of today ... It's

also a time-capsule of the universe of human emotions: people putting

their lives on-the-line to save others, the tragedies of individual

lives, the light-hearted happiness of a childhood without pollution and

the motor car, yet aginst a background of the insanity of the most

horrific conflict in human history ... Yet in one small town, in one

small community, humanity continually triumphs. Whether against greed

or evil, humanity is the underlying theme of A Tenby Lifeboat Family

making it an antidote against the dead-pan reality of the new

millennium ... Once upon a time this is how the world was and needs to

become again. Is it political? Only to the insanest spin-doctor. But to

you? You may not know it but A Tenby Lifeboat Family is where your

roots lie regardless of your individual origins anywhere on planet

Earth ... For the humanity of the human spirit is what enables us to

walk on the Moon and look back with pride at little old planet Earth

and know that is where we belong for that is our home ... So if,

wherever you may be reading this, you feel down-trodden by a

meaningless existence then this book is Avis Nixon's gift of a future

to you. ... For there is a future but only if you remember that it

belongs to you. Is it poetical? If the stars in the night sky are

poetical, then yes. If the deepset reds of a fine sunset are poetical,

then yes. If the moonbeams on a dark ocean are poetical, then yes ...

For surely humanity, what it is to be human, is to know one's place in

the natural world of human emotions. But enough of melancholia, Avis

Nixon will make you laugh too ... So there you have it: with the gift

of hindsight you'll be able to judge for yourself.

by the almost routine-like nature of most call-outs. For such is the

dedication, expertise and efficiency of all Lifeboat crews and their

shore helpers (those who man the Lifeboat Station to assist at launch

and rehousing) that it is as if a well-rehearsed drama is taking place.
Twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year, at any time the maroons may

be fired that signify the launch of the Tenby Lifeboat. Two maroons are

launched high over Tenby town, accompanied by a loud explosion; dogs

bark, seagulls take to the air and the inhabitants of Tenby wonder ...

wonder where their Lifeboat is going and when it will return. In the

day a puff of grey smoke marks the explosion, due to the speed of sound

being slower than the speed of light the explosion is seen before it is

heard; at night the explosion is marked by a bright flash. A Tenby

Lifeboat Family by Avis Nixon are the memoirs of a Tenby Lifeboatman's

daughter from the 1930s and 1940s. Tenby-born author, poet and artist

Avis Nixon is the sixth daughter of Tenby Lifeboatman Alfred Cottam,

who was the Mechanic of the Tenby Lifeboat from 1933 to 1948. In 1938

Alfred Cottam was awarded the RNLI's Bronze Medal for his part in Tenby

Lifeboat's legendary rescue of the crew of the SS Fermanagh.