Beyond the Reefs (Century Travellers) Paperback – Import, 1992

Bought as gift

Beautiful book very pleased

This was a really nice find; one of those books you might not think you want to read, but once you've started it, you can't put it down. This book details the life of the author --- "an inveterate adventurer and explorer" according to the publisher --- who ends up living among the locals in the Seychelle Islands in the 1950s. His primary occupation is fishing ... for sharks. Travis offer the reader some thrilling, absorbing, and sometimes scary accounts of adventures underwater, onboard ship, and back on land in a small town. He is a gifted writer who presents vivid descriptions of what he sees and feels. His obervations and stories are also sometimes very poignent and moving. In addition to tales of the sharks, this book reveals an engaging cast of eccentric characters who worked for Travis on the fishing trips. The back cover calls this a "vivid and fascinating portrait of a world now lost forever" ... and that about sums it up. Thankfully, Travis's writing skills can transport the reader back to that time, so much so that you can almost smell the salt water, see these men, and feel the terror of having a shark brush up against your skin.

This book is an absolute blinder. For any body like myself who is interested in diving or travel it will enthraul, for anybody else just the mere excitement of the story and the histerical situations a bunch of half naked Sechelian men and one very confused westerner can get into will keep you on the edge of your seat throughout. You may be interested to know that "Beyond The Reefs" is infact a double book, also containing my favourite of his "Sharks For Sale". Some of the things in here like being puled along side a hooked 30 foot female great white have to be read to be believed. As I said this book is fantastic and if youv'e ever read something like the beach then this is sure if only superficialy to appeal. ORDER A COPY NOW! INFACT ORDER TWO OR THREE!

This book is a wonderful description of how the Seichelles were 50 years ago. It tells the ultimate (real) adventure of a man who had the strenght to change completely his life, and decided to live remote somewhere in the Indian Ocean. This is a story which will carry You in a world apart, and that it will not be any more. It makes you think of what and how much we have lost in our day after day rat race.Read and escape for a while. Buy as many copies as You can and make it read to your children before it is too late for them.