Always The Sound Of The Sea

Monday, 13 April 2009

By MARIANNE KELLY - Review

• Howick and Pakuranga TimesALWAYS THE SOUND OF THE SEA
Author: Helen Beaglehole
Publisher: Craig Potton Publishing
RRP: $39.99
Times rating:

ALWAYS The Sound Of The SeaLighting the CoastIn contrast with her description of the lighthouse system in her first book, she concentrates on the lighthouse keepers and their families in the second.She uses lengthy excerpts from private letters, official correspondence and two diaries – one started in 1872 by Charles Hepburn Orlando Robson and another by Hannah Parks. She also interviewed six men and two women who served on stations from the late 1940s to 1990.Rather than the often-portrayed romance and mystique of lighthouse life, the first-hand accounts in this book are hard-hitting insights into the everyday reality of the isolation and unending routine of hard physical work.The book is structured around substantial excerpts of the personal accounts linked with brief notes which build in background to the narrated event.“These reports and letters, covering a considerable range of issues, indicate not only what was happening and the conditions under which the keepers lived, but also keepers’ aspirations and concerns,” Ms Beaglehole says.“For all their official status, they [the reports and letters] signal something of what it must have been like to be a lighthouse keeper.”

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Always The Sound Of The Sea