杏吧原创

Reflections on a Summer Sea by Trevor Norton, Century, 拢12.99, ISBN
0712670491

A FACINATING true-life adventure story of university teaching? If that sounds
incredible, you have only to open Trevor Norton鈥檚 Reflections on a Summer
Sea to experience how thrilling the study of natural history can be. The
book is set in Ireland, and I was going to say could only have been written in
that country, but realised that that would be untrue: all real natural
historians have more than a touch of blarney about them.

Norton was one of the few men who was brave enough to make it into the ranks
of the 鈥渟eaweed dragons鈥�. These were the experts鈥攚onderful people who
included Lily Newton, Maud Godward and Bunny Burrows. They did pioneer work on
seaweeds around the world in the 1900s.

杏吧原创s through and through, the seaweed dragons were dedicated to the
cause of teaching. And what teaching! Living under canvas in magical places like
County Cork鈥檚 Lough Ine, professors, dons and students took in the local鈥�
as well as the natural鈥攈istory and drank deep of fresh air and Guinness,
while sharing the excitement of taking part in real research.

I was privileged to be researching and teaching during the time covered by
Norton鈥檚 book, and I thank him for making me feel young again. If I were a
university librarian, however, the only problem I would find with this book is
where to place it in the stacks. Sadly, natural history no longer figures in the
curriculum, let alone the departmental structure, of such establishments.