Produced as a tie-in to the landmark natural history series, which has been airing on BBC One this month, Wonders Of The Celtic Deep takes a deeper dive into the stories, history, marine wildlife, and people inside and behind the show of the same name. As an object, the Graffeg book is a nice, weighty coffee-table tome, brimming with clean, colourful layouts and cherrypicked glossy pictures taken from both the seafloor and above the waves.
Included are ‘Fact File’ inserts; nice, educational snapshots of creatures, locations or environments, making Wonders both suitable for longer reading sessions or interesting for a casual flick through. It feels counterintuitive to say this, considering the focus is on the Wonders of Wales’ underexplored coastlines and seas, but perhaps the most absorbing section is the last third – which focuses on the human element. Titled ‘Heroes Of The Celtic Deep’, as is the four-part series’ last episode, this bit of the book examines our relationship to the water, positive and negative.
The Welsh seas are rife with tourists, fishing folk and even therapists, but also concerned conservationists and rescuers. “The threats to the seas around Wales continue,” Wonders… cautions, only to finish, affirmingly: “But we are a resourceful species.”
Wonders Of The Celtic Deep, Anne Gallagher / Dale Templar / Sally Weale (Graffeg)
Price: £25. Info: here
words HANNAH COLLINS
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