UNDERWATER TO GET OUT OF THE RAIN: A LOVE AFFAIR WITH THE SEA by Trevor Norton (Century, £12.99): FOR a relative sea novice like myself, I admit I approached Trevor Norton's story of his "love affair with the sea" with some trepidation.

Stereotypical images of people with beards boring you with minute detail would not be most people's cup of tea. I was pleasantly surprised with the ease with which he grabbed me and guided me through his world. Norton intersperses his personal life journey with factual information. From his struggles in the North Sea on family holidays to Whitley Bay, to his first overzealous diving attempts, he relates his struggles and fascination with genuine warmth and humour.

James Cleary

SWIMMING TO ANTARCTICA by Lynne Cox (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, £18.99)

WHEN American Lynne Cox was 15, she broke the men's and women's records for swimming the English channel. When she was 18, she swam the 20 mile Cook Strait between the north and south islands of New Zealand. She has swum the Nile, round the Cape of Good Hope and after 11 years of petitioning throughout the Cold War, she was the first person to open up the American/Soviet border - by swimming the Bering Strait from Alaska to Siberia. So yes, this is a book about swimming, but it's also about physical courage and mental determination - not to mention sheer bloody mindedness. It is a fascinating and invigorating read.

FAT GIRL by Judith Moore (Profile, £12.99)

JUDITH Moore was a fat, unloved child. Was she fat because she wasn't loved? Was she not loved because she was fat? Whichever way round, it was a wretched, miserable childhood, in which she was stuffed with food by a grandmother, beaten by her slim mother and longed for her absent father. It all left Moore in a mess, with a pretty weird relationship with food. But the really sad thing is that not even she loves herself. So it's pretty grim reading. As our children get fatter and lazier, maybe all parents should read this and learn the true misery of being a fat child. Or maybe we should just make sure our children know we love them, whatever their shape or size.

Sharon Griffiths

"T'ILLS WAS FALLIN' DOWN'': THE GREAT LANDSLIP OF 1872 by Brian Marsay (Bilsdale Study Group, £6.50 from bookshops in Guisborough and Stokesley)

IN June 1872, a huge landslip on the Cleveland Hills blocked the road from Stokesley to Helmsley at Clay Bank. At that time, the responsibility for repair rested with parish councils - in this case Ingleby Greenhow. Yet Ingleby Greenhow folk rarely had need to use the "lost" section of road. They also argued that those who did, chiefly farmers in Bilsdale, could use a two-mile detour. Thus began a three-year legal battle in which Bilsdale fought to compel Ingleby Greenhow to restore the road. Explained here largely through the legal documents, the case is believed to have been a factor in the transfer of responsibility for highways to county councils, which were created not long afterwards. A timely read following the recent floods.

Harry Mead

Published: 28/06/2005