SEA SERPENTS & LAKE MONSTERS OF THE BRITISH ISLES by Paul Harrison
Robert Hale - October 2001
ISBN 0709069235
Nonfiction / Cryptozoology / Natural History
British Isles

Reviewed by Rachel A Hyde, MyShelf.com
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We've all heard of monsters such as Nessie and Champ but perhaps many of us think of them as just something to fill the newspapers with during the "silly season". But the giant squid has been proven to exist, and it wasn't that long ago since the coelacanth swum into history…this subject is a great taboo amongst anybody with a good name to keep and many a scientific career has foundered when a belief in such things has been aired. Here is a new book that sets out sightings from all over the British Isles mainly during the last 200 years as well as looking at earlier sightings of dragons and "worms" from the mists of legend. Harrison has collected accounts from people ranging from the ordinary to the famous (including the man responsible for most of the Titanic rescues), told about hoaxes and discussed then dismissed possible candidates for the sightings (oarfish, seals, sturgeons etc) and then collated them into this volume.

Of course it is all inconclusive as nothing has been proved but it makes for fascinating reading for anybody with even the least interest in the subject. It lacks the passion (some people might think this is no bad thing) of Bernard Heuvelmans' classic works and wisely Harrison does not offer up much of his own speculations but gives the reader the facts, such as they are, and lets them decide for themselves. It is an easy subject to do badly and a difficult one to do well but Harrison has managed something that is neither romantic nor too scientific. Personally I would have liked a little of Heuvelmans' deep feeling for the subject tempered with some cold hard facts (what we do know, such as it is) but this is still a fascinating book.