Book of the Shark

This is a no-nonsense, straight talking book about one of the world's greatest-ever apex predators. For once, we find a chapter on Shark attack which is covered objectively without any frantic over-excitement on the part of the author. Put another way, this is a book which sets out to explain the Shark - and it does exactly that without allowing any hysterical hyperbole about attacks and killing to dominate the content. And that content is well laid out. We commence with the Anatomy of the Shark which, for once, I found exceedingly well explained, before moving on to Shark Senses, Reproduction, Throughout History, Shark Attack, Conservation, Species Directory and finally Index of Species. The part I liked best is the Shark Species Directory. It's like a slimmed down phone book - except that you don't even need a name to find what you are looking for. The easy-to-read text is well supported with a good selection of colour photographs - which were cleverly chosen for that supporting role. In addition, I particularly liked the graphics which are very clear and achieve all they should achieve. Altogether a most reasonable book about that creatures which continues to excite us all. NM