Historical anecdotes of fishing pressure: Misconstrued “sea serpent” sightings provide evidence for antecedent entanglement of marine biota in the British Isles

Twenty nine items of correspondence from the mid-1950s discovered recently in the archives of the University Marine Biological Station Millport, and others made available by one of the illustrators and a referee, shed unique light on the publishing history of Collins pocket guide to the sea shore. This handbook, generally regarded as a classic of its genre, marked a huge step forwards in 1958; providing generations of students with an authoritative, concise, affordable, well illustrated text with which to identify common organisms found between the tidemarks from around the coasts of the British Isles. The crucial role played by a select band of illustrators in making this publication the success it eventually became, is highlighted herein. The difficulties of accomplishing this production within commercial strictures, and generally as a sideline to the main employment of the participants, are revealed. Such stresses were not helped by changing demands on the illustrators made by the authors and by the publishers.

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PRESTON, CD. Pondweeds of Great Britain and Ireland (BSBI Handbook No. 8). Botanical Society of the British Isles, London: 1995, reprinted 1996. Price £16.00. ISBN 0-0901158-24-0.

Archives of Natural History ◽

10.3366/anh.1998.25.3.456 ◽

1998 ◽

Vol 25 (3) ◽

pp. 456-456

Author(s):

ALEC COLES

Keyword(s):

Great Britain ◽

British Isles ◽

Botanical Society

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Simpson, N. Douglas. A bibliographical index of the British flora, including floras, herbals, periodicals, societies and references relating to the identification, distribution and occurrence of phanerogams, vascular cryptogams and charophytes in the British Isles. Pp. xix, 429. 30 cm. Bournemouth: N. Douglas Simpson, 3 Cavendish Road. 1960. 75/-.

Journal of the Society for the Bibliography of Natural History ◽

10.3366/jsbnh.1963.4.3.193 ◽

1963 ◽

Vol 4 (3) ◽

pp. 193-193

Author(s):

A. C. T.

Keyword(s):

British Isles

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Historical anecdotes of fishing pressure: Misconstrued “sea serpent” sightings provide evidence for antecedent entanglement of marine biota in the British Isles

Ethnobiology and Shifting Baselines: An Example Reinterpreting the British Isles’ Most Detailed Account of a Sea Serpent Sighting as Early Evidence for Pre­Plastic Entanglement of Basking Sharks

Janet Burton and Karen Stöber, eds., Monasteries and Society in the British Isles in the Later Middle Ages. (Studies in the History of Medieval Religion, 35.) Woodbridge, Eng., and Rochester, N.Y.: Boydell and Brewer, 2008. Pp. xiv, 252; black-and-white figures and tables. $95.

Icelandic Sagas and Other Historical Documents Relating to the Settlements and Descents of the Northmen of the British Isles

Professional Shakespeare Productions in the British Isles, January–December 2008

The Sea Serpent of the Newspapers

Another Sea Serpent

P. J. WISIENWSKI. Newts of the British Isles. Shire Publications, Aylesbury: 1989. Pp 24; illustrated. Price: £1.95. ISBN 0-7478-0029-4.

Illustrations and the genesis of Barrett and Yonge's Collins pocket guide to the sea shore (1958)

PRESTON, CD. Pondweeds of Great Britain and Ireland (BSBI Handbook No. 8). Botanical Society of the British Isles, London: 1995, reprinted 1996. Price £16.00. ISBN 0-0901158-24-0.

Ethnobiology and Shifting Baselines: An Example Reinterpreting the British Isles’ Most Detailed Account of a Sea Serpent Sighting as Early Evidence for PrePlastic Entanglement of Basking Sharks