Book Review:
The Enchanted Braid - Coming to Terms with Nature on the Coral Reef

The Enchanted Braid - Coming to Terms with Nature on the Coral Reef
Osha Gray Davidson, John Wiley & Sons, 288 pages
 

The inner dust cover flap promises to deliver an eye-opener for a very broad readership encompassing the lay person and the marine biologist. Over a global range of subject matter, the author has been successful in achieving this apparently tall order in what is claimed to be a blend of aesthetic appreciation, scientific enquiry and environmental manifesto.
 
The material covered ranges from the essential basic ecology and history of our knowledge of the coral reef to the modern day pressures which they are under. Throughout the book the text is well delivered and presented through the eyes of an enquiring non-specialist mind but with sufficient rigour and content to captivate those with a scientific training. Technical areas of the text are, conversely, necessarily peppered with additional explanatory notes but not so much as to present an obstruction to the more informed reader.
 
The author has systematically researched the material for the book whilst on travels throughout the world over a number of years. Based on first hand experience he is able to successfully conjure from the page, many of the most significant places and people in relation to coral reef biology and our understanding of it. The style is easy to follow and, with analogy and day-to-day concepts, technicalities are easily grasped. By the second part of the book the reader is well enough equipped with an enthused, broad understanding of the biology and functioning of the coral reef to be able to tackle the profound threats with which coral reefs are now faced.
 
It is surprising not to find more pages of colour photography in a modern publication on such a subject. In addition to the target audience, the book would be of particular value to biologists and conservationists interested in coral reefs as well as an essential companion to those diving holidaymakers visiting tropical coral coastlines.

Review by Dr Bill Sanderson

You can buy this book, with 20% off, from Amazon.co.uk or from Amazon.com.
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