This is my much loved (and read) childhood book of all things underwater exploration. As a young boy I absolutely adored this book, the illustrations captivated me and really sparked my imagination like no other at that age.

The Ladybird Achievements books have been such a huge part of children’s lives in Britain and those published in this format in the sixties and seventies were very dear to my generation. They featured many different subjects from history to sport, nature and science but this book, first published in 1967 by Wills & Hepworth Ltd was unquestionably my favourite title.

Written by Richard Bowood and beautifully illustrated by B. Knight, it explains the history of diving from its earliest forms through to the then latest advances in deep sea exploration.

What they managed to achieve was a sense of excitement and wonder through education, they drew the young reader in with their easy to follow paragraphs and wonderful illustrations and were undoubtedly the first stepping stone for further reading and studies.

What captured my imagination the most were the illustrations of the free divers such as the one above, the crystal clear blue waters, the exotic fish were all so far from what I knew growing up on the east coast of England. This sparked my interest in travel and collecting travel books and of all the ones I own this old children’s book remains my favourite.

Sadly unable to find out more information regarding the artist who illustrated a number of the books and would be grateful if anyone does know more.