Neil Moss book a disappointing read

[Jenny P]

The British Caving Library (BCL) has just bought a book by David Ward entitled ENTOMBED, about the Neil Moss rescue in 1959.

Sadly it says absolutely nothing new and has a number of omissions and inaccuracies which make it misleading and, IMHO, not worth buying. On a first 2-minute, skim-through read I found no mention at all of Ron Peters, who was awaded a George Medal for his work in attempting to rescue Moss, and a statement that Les Salmon was a member of BCA (the British Caving Association) at the time, i.e. 1959. So much for fact checking or proof reading!

There are only 64 sides of actual "story" text (in large size font) with some blank sides, so I reckon it would take me no more than 15 minutes to read the whole thing properly - this for a book which cost £14.04. The book is self-published by someone who seems to have only previousy written books about cycling and clearly knows nothing about caving.

The majority of the B/W photos are copied from David Webb's James Lovelock collection or are photos of newspaper headlines. Apart from these, there are a few more recent and rather poor B/W photos by the author, a few others and an excellent cover (color) photo by Mark Burkey. The author acknowledges the help received from David Webb in writing his book: some of the photos are Webb's own and it leans heavily on Webb's amazing film "Fight for Life, the Neil Moss Srtory". This makes it doubly disappointing since David Webb's film drew a standing ovation when it was first shown at Hidden Earth some years ago, whereas the book is a dull potboiler.

So we have the book at BCL, because it's a book about caving, but I certainly wouldn't bother to buy a copy for myself.

 

[langcliffe]

That is a pity, particularly since it is a story well worth telling, and there is an enormous amount of information now available.

 

[David Ward]

Thank you for your honest review, Jenny. I'm sorry you didn't like my account of the Neil Moss tragedy.
I accept that I'm not a specialist caver, and I don't claim to be. I'm not sure that precludes me from writing about a subject I have always found interesting, in a historical context.
The reason for my response here, though, is that your criticism is unfounded, insofar as Ron Peters is mentioned twice, at pages 37 and 63, including the fact that he was awarded the George Medal.
I had the pleasure of meeting the late Tom Tomlinson, National Park Ranger, a few years ago. He was involved in the rescue attempt at the time, and I found his recollection of what occurred invaluable.

 

[Jenny P]

If you do an internet search on "Ron Peters Neil Moss" you will find a photo of Ron and a short note about how he won the George Medal for his attempt to rescue Moss. Ron has been an Honorary Member of Orpheus C. C. since 1959 but would never talk to anyone about the Neil Moss rescue and his part in it and declined to be interviewed for David Webb's film: that's why he doesn't appear in the film.

Mary Wilde, our BCL Librarian, this afternoon asked AI to produce a short report on the Moss rescue and, in 3 paragraphs, it effectively reproduced the information in Ward's book. The AI version didn't mention Ron Peters at all but did, at least, record that the trip into Peak was a BSA exploration plus a few other facts; otherwise it appears to parrot the information in Ward's book, which would be the most recent reference it used. That tells you how much an AI report is worth and how much research is behind it!

I have a personal interest in this, being a member of Orpheus C.C. myself. Neil Moss did his National Service as an Officer Cadet at Catterick from 1956-58 and was introduced to caving by Boyd Potts (my late husband) and the late John Gillett; he continued with ths interest after he took up his place at Oxford. (Boyd and John were among that last cohort doing their National Service from 1956-58 and were in the Dales Club at Catterick, along with people like Fred Davies of Shepton Mallett C.C. and some other Mendip cavers.) John's books about his caving days are well worth a read and mention his time at Catterick and the Dales Club.

I haven't checked but it would be good if the memorial plaque for Moss at the old Castleton Youth Hostal had been re-instated at Lose Hill Hall, with a supplementary note about where it had come from. There is a precedent for this: the memorial plaque for one of the cavers who died in the 1967 Mossdale tragedy, was put up at his college. It had to be removed when the college was demolished some years later but it was kept by someone and later passed to BCLto ensure that it wasn't lost altogether. A friend of the caver named heard that we might have the plaque and has now reclaimed it, along with the note that came with it explaining where it had come from what had happened when the college was demolished.

 

[David Ward]

Well, thanks for your response on that!
I'd be grateful if you could at least read the book through! It took a while to write, despite being relatively brief.
As you rightly say, the photo of the plaque in the Youth Hostel was taken by David Webb.
That was a few years ago. I've been trying to find out what has happened to it since Castleton Hall closed.