This book looks good, as it should, but it is nowhere near good enough and I am considering returning my copy for a full refund from the bookseller; I sent a complaint to the publisher, too. It is, as it says, a pictorial history but it is not a pictorial history of shipping on London's river during the 1940s to 1980s (as stated on the cover); indeed, the vast majority of the 207 pages of black and white photographs are from the 1970s and 1980s, very few from the 1940s, 1950s or 1960s. On the back cover of the book there is a more honest description of the book, but this book does not do 'what it says on the front of the tin'! In the introduction it's even more specific - most photographs were taken from 1976-1983 so it is quite extraordinary that the publisher could contrive the title it did!

The photographs are good quality and this book will appeal to some maritime and ship enthusiasts. But it is manifestly not as described on the book's cover and dust jacket. Indeed, even the author's name is incorrectly spelled on both the cover and dust jacket - Malcolm Batten must have been delighted with that cock up by the publisher. The editing of this book is, frankly, poor. However, the introduction to the book and, indeed, most of the text is pretty good, giving an interesting history of the docks and, particularly, the loading and unloading and ancillary services not often covered in books about ships.

Beyond basic information, little effort was made to tell readers about many of the ships depicted, Indeed, some of the captions are asinine and plain lazy. The author clearly is not much interested in warships, for the six photographs of naval vessels on 'courtesy visits' to London are hopelessly captioned. For instance, "Australian Navy destroyer D41 Brisbane" would better read "Australian Navy destroyer HMAS Brisbane (D41)" and "UK Navy M1173 Mersey ..." would better read "British minesweeper HMS Mersey (M1173) ...". Those of who served in the Royal Navy will call it that, UK Navy being reserved mainly for NATO designations. "TA31 heads back to sea ..." is plain incompetent a caption - I found the answer to her identity in seconds online: she is the Spanish Navy's LSD Galicia (TA-31), no sane person ever referring to a ship by its pennant number only! The picture on page 207 of a ship chartered by the Ministry of Defence should be properly described as RFA Sir Lamorak. HM Royal Yacht Britannia, on the same page, should also be described properly.

On page 203 there's a picture captioned "Vessels at Lambeth Pier in the 1960s" - 0/10 for effort with that one! At least one of them is so easy to identify but "why bother" it seems was the attitude of publisher and author.

Various liners are depicted but not one of the P&O-Orient liners that sailed from Tilbury landing stage to Australia carrying ten-pound poms - not one of the Himalaya, Iberia, Chusan, Orsova, Orcades (I list these from memory, there were more). It is good to see the Russian liners covered but the famous Polish liner Batory is not included.

The chapters covering tugs, harbour craft and floating cranes is good, for one seldom sees such vessels covered in books. The same is true for small coasters, coastal tankers, barges and other vessels. It is good, too, that ship names are in italics - many publishers fail to do so and another plus is that the photographs are of whole ships - I think I did not see more than one photograph where bow or stern is cut off (a real pet hate!). I wanted to know more about the Driftwood Boat, the Recovery Craft and how many readers will know what a Hopper Barge is? On page 151 the caption reads "Two unidentified tugs seen from above, c.1949" - well, seen from above is blindingly obvious (as is Two!) and I can do better than the lazy author here; one of the tugs is either General III (1932) or General IV (1936) - methinks the latter - owned by the General Lighterage Co Ltd (the name is almost readable near the stern, the funnel marking clear) and the other is almost certainly Scottie (1930), owned by McDougall & Bonthron. Not unidentified, only unidentified by a lazy caption writer!

The last caption on page 52 refers to a photograph on the next page, the caption ending with "... and an unidentified ship ...". Well, I am 72 and, with a magnifying glass, I can tell that the ship is a small freighter and her name has two words, six letters and five - I can nearly read the letters but I am pretty certain that with a little effort the ship could have been identified (better eyesight, original photograph and larger magnifying glass, perhaps!). On page 157, an unnamed foreign coaster takes up most of the photograph but the caption ignores it - part of her name is easily readable, but not all.

There is just one photograph of Tower Bridge and her bascules are closed - what a disappointment. These bascules are raised a number of times most days - surely there should be at least one photograph of a ship passing though? No photographs depicting the medium-sized cargo ships of the Spanish Aznar Line alongside near London Bridge but there is one photograph of the Upper Pool, and no photograph of a warship alongside HMS Belfast or of the frigate HMS Jupiter caught by the fast-moving waters and thrust crashing alongside London Bridge in June 1984. No photograph of the East German freighter Magdeburg, with a deck cargo of buses, sunk near Grays - she was a tourist attraction for weeks! No photograph of the US Liberty Ship ss Richard Montgomery, still lying where she sank in 1944. Astoundingly, no photographs of ships in the London Docks during the strike of 1966 - some were three ships abreast in the Royal Docks.

It would have been good were mention made of the cargoes carried and from whence and to where the ships were going. Clearly the author had a copy of the PLA Handbook to hand (as have I) and that would and should have provided inspiration. A complete map of the River Thames (from the Pool to the Estuary) would have helped - there are maps and plans of the docks - perhaps showing where the photographs were taken. There are maps and plans of the docks but not the full length of most of the tidal river from central London to the estuary.

A book like this needs an index and one would have been relatively easy to complete. Indeed, there are four blank pages at the back of the book, as if the printer just forgot to include the index (I would not be surprised - the publisher did not open his or her eyes enough when dealing with this sorry volume).

In short, the text is good and mostly very good. The photo captions are rarely good, varying from totally inadequate to satisfactory. The book's title is plain wrong, and an index was absolutely essential. In view of the quality of the text, I decided to keep this book but I find it hard to recommend that anyone else buys this book. I am glad that I did not pay full price for the book!

Both publisher and author could, and should, have done a lot better. The photographer, the late Reg Batten, deserved better than this. While much of the text is good, this book is not what I expected. By the late 1960s I was serving in the Royal Navy and no longer ship spotting at Tilbury and Grays, my blue PLA pass to all the London Docks no longer valid. Ships of the 1970s and 1980s I saw only on the high seas and only once did I serve in a ship that paid a visit to London - the new frigate HMS Brave alongside HMS Belfast for five days in mid-December 1986. ( )