The ultimate uk caver's coffee-table book?

[Pipster]

I'm pretty sure many of you are familiar with this fantastic climbing coffee-table book:

Classic Rock: Great British Rock Climbs
http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/products/ken+wilson/classic+rock/5528684/
For those of you who haven't seen this book, it's a large hard-backed book, jammed full of excellent photographs (over 200 full colour, from start to end) of "classic" climbing routes. There's a bit of history (including historic photographs) to accompany it with brief route descriptions, but the focus is purely on the outstanding scenary and photograhy. It's certainly a book to inspire.

Now what I'd like to see is...

Classic Underground: Great British Caves

This would be the ultimate caving coffee-table book. It would be jam-packed of photographs taken by the likes of Rob Eavis, Robbie Shone, Steve Sharp, Martyn Farr, the usual photographers who's images appear on Descent magazine, as well as some historical photographs. Apologies to all the other well know photographers who's names I've missed but these are all I can remember off the top of my head! Similiary, the focus of the book is purely to show the outstanding natural beauty that awaits underground, with just a brief history and description (detailed information can obviously be found elsewhere). Most of us don't have the time/money/skill to take such stunning photographs, and to be able to show (and hopefully inspire) others of what lies beneath our feet, and show where we've visited, would be great. I imagine that most non-caving types find it hard to imagine just what lies underground from what we describe, but this would be an eye-opener and hopefully encourage some to take up the sport. Once more, it may well prompt us cavers to visit somewhere we'd not visited before.

 

[langcliffe]

Martyn Farr was asked to produce such a book in 1989 in the very same series, but unfortunately the publisher got taken over and it came to nowt. Some of it did get written before that happened, and three chapters (without the illustrations) can be found on the Braemoor website.

Juniper Gulf: http://www.braemoor.co.uk/caving/juniper.shtml
Dowber Gill Passage: http://www.braemoor.co.uk/caving/dowbergill.shtml
Penyghent Pot: http://www.braemoor.co.uk/caving/penyghent.shtml

I also know that Geoff Yeadon was asked to write a chapter on Meregill, as I accompanied him on a trip down there whilst he was filling in some of the detail.

 

[Pitlamp]

I submitted a chapter on Peak Cavern and I know that others produced material as well.

Funnily enough I was wonderimg what had happened to that project only a week or so ago; I made a mental note to ask Martyn next time I bumped into him. Does anyone else have any more up to date intelligence on the situation?

 

[Rob]

A proper cavers coffeetable book could be a great thing, if done properly. There's certainly enough good photos of our caves to make a wider audience interested. 

I'm sure most of you are familiar with Selected Caves of Britain and Ireland already.

This is not a coffee table book, as the emphasis is on the cave detail rather than the pictures/stories.

Those descriptions linked to above are, in my opinion, too detailed for light browsing purposes.

Just my opinion, hope it's taken productively rather than critically.

 

[graham]

I wrote a chapter, too, as did Dick Willis.

Last time I spoke to Martyn about it, the project wasn't entirely dead.

 

[Pitlamp]

Didn't Paul Deakin and Dave Gill do a book of essentially photographs of selected British potholes some tome in the early 1970s? (The images were in monochrome if I remember rightly.)

Glad to hear the project is still simmering on the back burner Graham.

 

[Glenn]

Didn't Paul Deakin and Dave Gill do a book of essentially photographs of selected British potholes some tome in the early 1970s? (The images were in monochrome if I remember rightly.)

British Caves and Potholes

 

[graham]

Didn't Paul Deakin and Dave Gill do a book of essentially photographs of selected British potholes some tome in the early 1970s? (The images were in monochrome if I remember rightly.)

They did: British Caves and Potholes published in 1975.

 

[langcliffe]

Those descriptions linked to above are, in my opinion, too detailed for light browsing purposes.

Just my opinion, hope it's taken productively rather than critically.

No problem - they were written to Martyn's specification. I think that with suitable illustrations, rather than just text on a page they would be easier to read, and they do match the level of detail found in Classic Walks etc.

 

[Alex]

I am sorry the selected caves book is too inaccurate for my tastes - take Quaking pot description of the Crux for example. But  because of that maybe it is more suited for the coffee table rather then a detailed guide of a cave system. Maybe I am just being too harsh? Maybe I have just got used to the quality of NFTFH descriptions. That book does not have any pictures for a coffee table though.

 

[barrabus]

I am sorry the selected caves book is too inaccurate for my tastes - take Quaking pot description of the Crux for example. But  because of that maybe it is more suited for the coffee table rather then a detailed guide of a cave system. Maybe I am just being too harsh? Maybe I have just got used to the quality of NFTFH descriptions. That book does not have any pictures for a coffee table though.

So the obvious answer is a version of Not For The Faint Hearted with some really nice pictures in then.

I'd buy another copy. I've already got two copy's: one to read and thumb through, and one to stay in pristine condition on my guide book shelf (which is starting to get a bit out of hand now actually).

 

[barrabus]

I wrote a chapter, too, as did Dick Willis.

What caves did you write about? And would it be possible to put it on the Braemoor site?

Last time I spoke to Martyn about it, the project wasn't entirely dead.

Or do I just have to add it to the list of guide books I'm waiting for?

 

[graham]

I wrote a chapter, too, as did Dick Willis.

What caves did you write about? And would it be possible to put it on the Braemoor site?

I did Poulnagollum/Poulelva and Dick did St. Cuthberts.

As it was written for a commission, I'd be very unhappy about publishing it elsewhere without an explicit permission.

 

[jasonbirder]

A NFTFH covering the other caving areas in the UK would be a must have "coffee table" purchase with or without illustrations...
Such a fantastic book & format...

 

[graham]

A NFTFH covering the other caving areas in the UK would be a must have "coffee table" purchase with or without illustrations...
Such a fantastic book & format...

How much of a market would there be for a NFTFH covering Derbyshire now that CoPD is out. Would there have been much of a market for it if an up to date Northern Caves was available?

As a sad completist, I am much more interested in comprehensive guides than in those that select sites; thus although I have the MCRA on my desktop and a copy of MU on the shelf behind me, I still use my 1977 Complete Caves just as much as I ever did.

Mind, I am talking about guide books now, not coffee table books.

 

[kay]

Would there have been much of a market for it if an up to date Northern Caves was available?

Well, we've got a copy, though as super-faint-heart and a tending-to-faint-heart there is no chance that we'll go anywhere near any of them But it's nice to put the context around Alex's exploits  :tease:

 

[jasonbirder]

I think there would be a demand for a Peak NFTFH equivilent...even following the COPD publication...
COPD is very much a reference and the format only allows so much information for each cave...also alot of the descriptions are unchanged from the last publication which is nearly 25 years old...

 

[dunc]

NFTFH describes caves in far more detail than any full and proper area guide could ever do..