The Cave by Liam Cochrane - One Order

yrammy

Member
We have 'The Cave by Liam Cochrane' on order.  Published 10th January. It will be interesting to compare this to The Boys In The Cave which has been reviewed on this forum and is now available to the library.
Mary
 

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mikem

Well-known member
Martyn Farr did a review of both on Facebook, maybe someone who knows him can get it copied up here (he reckoned this was the better book).

Mike
 

yrammy

Member
With kind permission from Martyn Farr.

Thai Cave Rescue: The First Books?

In June 2018 a dramatic cave rescue began in Thailand that was to grip people worldwide. As it drew to a miraculous conclusion it was inevitable that books and movies would follow. I was amazed when the first two books on the subject were received in December, less than five months from the conclusion of the event. To turn a book out in that time : very impressive.

The first book to drop through the letterbox was entitled: ?The Boys In The Cave? * by first time author, American journalist Matt Gutman. The second, a couple of weeks later: ?The Cave? by Liam Cochrane. The first surprising thing that strikes me as I construct a review is that both these works are derived from the same publishing house - HarperCollins. The accompanying leaflet for reviewers gives the contact for both books as Serena Stent, Harper360.

Gutman?s book: The Boys In The Cave
The front cover was subtitled ?Deep Inside The Impossible Rescue In Thailand?. My instant reaction was that, while hardback, the book looked and felt cheap and tacky. The cover image, showing two distant divers in a tunnel was poor; the wordage and design overly sensationalised.

Given the short period of time given to the preparation of this book I was genuinely intrigued as to what might be disclosed, but a touch cynical as to quality. Barely was the book opened when a gross error stared at me from the Contents page. Chapter 13 was entitled The Wet Mulles. It referred to the Australian team of divers correctly known as The Wet Mules. On to Page 1. Instantly I noted that my friend, British diver John Volanthen, had his name incorrectly spelt as well. Throughout the book, and we are probably talking hundreds of times, John?s name was consistently incorrect.
By page 3 my attention was caught by the poor understanding Gutman had of the principal rescue divers. He referred to them as ?naturally pessimistic.? This lack of knowledge of the people involved and the simple lack of caving/cave diving understanding was to crop up again and again. Historical research into the wider subject matter was also poor: Statements such as:
?Yet over the past 90 years more than 130 people from Britain alone have died cave diving.? A gross, inexcusable exaggeration, utter crass hyperbole. (That figure is much less than 25 !). It was equally evident that Gutman had a very poor grasp of the real cave environment. ?In a cave spiked with glass-sharp stalactites a rope like that could easily snag or be severed.? Such statements are simply misleading or wrong!

The factual errors, the product of hasty compilation and poor checking, just kept appearing. Knowledge of diving was laughable: Gutman refers, for example, to ?steel O-rings at either end? of containers to ensure they are waterproof !
Again, recounting the rescue that Stanton and Mallinson had conducted in Mexico, in 2004, we are told that ?Six soldiers clung to a ledge above a subterranean river in relative comfort?? Clearly you cant let the truth get in the way of a good story. And on the very next page the incident involving the loss of a leading French cave diver is similarly dramatized incorrectly.
The touches of humour such as the description of Rick Stanton entering the cave and diving with an old car inner tube strapped to his back was engaging as was John Volanthen?s comment on the same equipment: ?You?ll look like a cockwomble.? But perhaps Jason Mallinson will not feel quite so amused when Gutman writes disparagingly: ?Mallinson, who is as chatty as a brick wall,??

Liam Cochrane?s book: The Cave
Having been critical of the shoddy ?race to the bookshelves? demonstrated by Gutman I was suitably primed as to what to be on the look out for in The Cave. The cover on the second book ? an image of the Wild Boars football team gathered on the surface - was altogether more attractive from my perspective than that selected by Gutman. Unfortunately the image on the back cover was confusing and would better have been left out altogether. Despite the fact that the two authors came from the same field, namely news correspondents, and the format of each book was essentially the same, it was very quickly apparent that their respective offerings were like chalk and cheese. Cochrane?s writing, was easy to read and the pages flowed naturally. Gutman?s book was clearly intended for an American audience, with some terms that we in UK might struggle to understand. Likewise all his distances are quoted in feet, yards and miles while Cochrane uses metric, which seems so much better, certainly for a European audience.

I was hunting for errors in The Cave but found few. There were 337 pages and it seemed evident to me that those few extra weeks taken in production were crucial. Final comment: The Cave is by far the better book in all respects. It will be interesting to see what other offerings appear on the bookshelves in the near future.
The Boys In The Cave: (hardback and ?20.00)
The Cave: (paperback ?15.99)
 

Duncan Price

Active member
I've got another book by Liam Cochrane on pre-order (due out 8th January).  I guess its the same inside but with a different title and cover for a different region.
 

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mikem

Well-known member
Harper Collins (who've published the other two books here) bought out the original UK company that was Allen & Unwin. The Australian section had a management buy out & their UK distribution is now Atlantic books, but no updates on that website since September, so doesn't seem to be available outside Australia (& Thailand).

Mike
 

Duncan Price

Active member
I've just finished reading Liam Cochrane's book (my copy arrived on Friday).  Amazon told me that version that I had originally ordered (same inside different title for another region) wouldn't arrive until March so I cancelled the order and re-ordered "The Cave".

I'll jot down my thoughts on it on a different thread but in short I found it a less dramatic (compared to Matt Gutman) and more detailed recounting of the story with few(er) gross errors.

 
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