Well, This Is a Disaster

British water has a remarkable ability to turn a pleasant afternoon into a surprisingly complicated journey home.

Well, This Is a Disaster: The British Waters Edition is a practical and humorous guide to staying safer around the British coast, lakes, reservoirs, estuaries and sheltered waters.

Written for swimmers, paddlers, families, coastal walkers and people using small leisure craft, it explains how to:

• check forecasts, tides, wind, daylight and local conditions
• choose and check lifejackets, buoyancy aids, leashes and essential equipment
• recognise cold-water danger before it becomes an emergency
• respond to capsizes, drifting craft and people struggling in the water
• avoid becoming cut off by the tide
• describe your location and call for the correct emergency service
• help from the shore without putting another person in danger
• use practical planning cards, action pages and water-day checklists

The guidance is written in clear British English, supported by memorable illustrations and accompanied by the sort of dry humour usually required when the forecast promised a light breeze.

Because the best water-safety story is the one in which everybody gets home-even if they are damp, embarrassed and missing a welly.