This is a heavily illustrated look at the world of diving. If you are thinking of taking up this pastime or know someone who is you could do a lot worse than to buy them this book. It's not a coffee table affair but it is quite pretty to look at and covers a lot of the aspects of diving in a format suitable for those who have not yet done a dive course.As another reviewer has noted however, if you are an accomplished diver then this book won't have as much in it for you. It would still be a good buy however to put on your shelf so that next time the subject comes up you have something to sling to one of your mates who is interested in taking it up.Alan Mountain has done pretty much exactly what he seems to have set out to do which is to release a book aimed at interested people and novice divers and to tempt them with a bunch of nice photographs and simple prose. Well done.