DIVE HAPPY

Alexander Mustard and Nick Hanna's Art Of Diving book is a sumptuous combination of photos and text that attempts to explain the lure of the underwater world

The Art Of Diving is an intriguing book I stumbled across on Amazon.co.uk - there's frustratingly little info about this coffee-table sized book on the Amazon page, but a quick Google not only turned up the website of one of the authors but also the fact the book has its own very snazzy companion website ArtOfDiving.com

Here's what Alexander says about it on his own website amustard.com:

The Art of Diving is my first solo photo book. A long term collaboration with writer Nick Hanna, and published by Ultimate Sports, it is a shared appreciation of the evocative underwater world. The work combines a wealth of beautiful and remarkable underwater photography, together with captivating explanations of the lure of the oceans, and reveals exactly what Jacques Cousteau meant when he claimed that "underwater, man becomes an archangel". With 272 pages and more than 200 photographs, The Art of Diving has been designed as a book to savour and linger over. Not a how to book about diving, instead it aims to celebrate the rich vibrancy of the underwater world; its influence on a divers mind, body and soul; the thrill of exploring mysterious oceans; the simple rapture of the deep. The book costs £20 and is available from all good booksellers (UK only initially, with other markets following during 2006).

Both Nick and I shared the aim to find a fresh and stimulating approach to diving. As a result The Art of Diving breathes new life into topics such fish watching, underwater landscapes and meeting remarkable creatures; plus techniques such as perfect buoyancy control and underwater meditation. The book also considers the threats marine environments face today - revealing and encouraging responsibility for the fate of our ocean heritage. The Art of Diving features interviews with many of the greatest names in the diving world today: including quotes from three generations of Cousteaus and underwater naturalists, photographers, diving authors and aquatic life experts, such as Hans Hass, Howard Hall, Lou Feed, Ned DeLoach, Helmut Debelius, Cathy Church, Zena Holloway, Tanya Streeter etc.

I'd love to get a copy of this. The success of Tim Ecott's Neutral Buoyancy seems to have opened a market for dive books written from a lifestyle perspective - there's Art Of Diving and also Tim Simond's Dive In Style.