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The Wreckers: A Story of Killing Seas, False Lights and Plundered Ships
 
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The Wreckers: A Story of Killing Seas, False Lights and Plundered Ships (Hardcover)

by Bella Bathurst (Author)
3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 326 pages
  • Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd; First Edition edition (4 April 2005)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0007170327
  • ISBN-13: 978-0007170326
  • Product Dimensions: 21.6 x 14.4 x 3.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 269,887 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Review

Praise for The Lighthouse Stevensons: 'Deeply accomplished ! this splendid book preserves the memory of great deeds performed in a heroic era' Frank McLynn, Sunday Times 'Bella Bathurst has built a lamp herself: it illuminates the work of a literary hero, a family business, a habit of mind and a Scottish period ! from the summit of this first terrific book she looks to become one of the best biographers of her generation' Andrew O'Hagan, The Times 'An enthralling story, vivaciously recounted ! These were epic and scarifying adventures, indicative of an age when the taming of nature was a philosophical given, its execution a religious passion' Alan Taylor, Observer 'This is a grand book doing for lighthouses what Dava Sobel's Longitude did for marine chronometers, and doing it, if comparisons be made, with considerably more panache' Nicholas Bagnall, Sunday Telegraph


Sunday Telegraph

'entertaining and gossipy...Bathurst pens vivid accounts of hazardous stretches of our coastline and the depredations of the inhabitants'
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Customer Reviews

8 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
3.0 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Misleading Title, 10 Mar 2006
By Matthew Jones (UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This book has the dramatic title of "The Wreckers: A story of killing Seas, False lights and plundered ships". Perhaps it might also be titled "Repetitive tales of shipwrecks, plundered by locals". The book consists of a series of interviews with people involved with shipwrecks as far back as the 1930's, interspersed with accounts of shipwrecks dating back hundreds of years. Whilst the more recent accounts are a little dull, the historical accounts which seem a bit more exciting are understandably rather brief. The author tries valliantly to claim that ships were lured to their demise by false lights displayed from the shore, but can find little or no evidence for it. The Author previously wrote an account about the Lighthouse Stephensons and I suspect that this book is compiled from the bits she edited out of the previous book. Although it is reasonably interesting, it is repetitive and meandering, rather like a college disertation where the student hasn't got enough substance to write about, so strays off the subject and pads it out with irrelevant passages.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars It isn't what it says on the cover!, 13 Jul 2006
By A. G. Rimmer (Lancashire) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Wreckers: A Story of Killing Seas, False Lights and Plundered Ships (Paperback)
I bought this book expecting to enjoy a riveting, well reschearched, story of the fabled wreckers of the British Isles. What I did get was, at best, an indifferent travelogue of parts of the UK shoreline and, at worst, a boring and totally irrelevent narrative about any subject other than wrecking. Not to be recommended unless you suffer from insomnia.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Not Bad..., 28 Jul 2006
This review is from: The Wreckers: A Story of Killing Seas, False Lights and Plundered Ships (Paperback)


I must admit I was hoping for a bit more from this book, it does attempt to cover the topic of Wrecking in Britain in some detail but I fear it is suffering (like so many books on a specific history subject) from a lack of material.

There is alot of padding and some blatantly off topic issues discussed such as Whales at the Natural History Museum!!

Unfortunately I think the book's problem is that Wrecking in the British Isles is simply not a subject large enough to warrant an entire book on it...perhaps if it was wrecking in the world at large perhaps it would make a more gripping read.

I did like the photographs and some of the stories about real wrecking incidents; Particularly the story of a young clergyman who, during a morning stroll on a beach, stumbled upon a shipwrecked sailor's corpse. He ran to find help and came across a cornishman out for a walk, he asked the man what he should do about the body and the cornishman replied 'Search his pockets' and walked off!

All in all it was fairly interesting but it had the potential to be alot better had it covered a broader subject.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Mariners will love this.
An interesting look at the history of wreckers and the myths that surround them.This book is a fascinating tale of some truely dangerous d waters around our British coastline and... Read more
Published 15 months ago by cancat reader

1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing.
Could have been such a great book (in theory), butthe author has just got together a collection of details and made them into a book.
Published 21 months ago by Ackman3

2.0 out of 5 stars No wind in the sails
Its seductive sub-title of 'A Story of Killing Seas, False Lights and Plundered Ships' gives the impression that 'The Wreckers' will be a book which throws a torch-beam upon the... Read more
Published 21 months ago by Wildlife Bookworm

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding
Drenched in the salt folklore of an island nation, Bathurst's book is a tour de force. Her research is faultless and exhaustive, and shows that the era of the "wrecker" has not... Read more
Published on 21 Nov 2006 by R. T. Kellett

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful and Vivid
I adore this book. If you have ever looked out to see and wondered what it would be like to fall foul of it's threatening power then I urge you to read this book and find out... Read more
Published on 6 Jul 2006 by Seren

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