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| The Entertainment Review |
| By: Trevor Norton Publisher: Da Capo Press |
Trevor Norton, a University of Liverpool Marine Biology Professor who informs readers that barnacles are tiny
creatures that live in houses with hinged roofs and eat dust particle size debris with enjoyment, finds life of any kind,
especially under the sea, to be quite exciting. Throughout his book, “Underwater to Get Out of the Rain,” Norton
offers thousands of facts painlessly with very subtle and oftentimes good humor aimed towards himself. He would like
to have readers believe that when he was a boy he was an indifferent scholar whose main claim to a bright and shiny
future were his detailed drawings of snails.
His book moves from Liverpool to California and then onto the Isle of Man, also known at the Manx Riviera, a small
island off the northwest coast of Britain best known for its famous motorcycle races. It was also a popular holiday site
where both German and Jewish refugees were interned during World War II. Norton describes that era in amazing
detail. Everyone had to pitch in and do whatever work came their way. One man who was asked to do a plumbing
job said that he was a gynecologist “but it is also a matter of tubes and pipe.”
The temporary population took to carving all types of gewgaws and knitting with small bits of wool that local sheep left
on the barbed wire fences. The results of these efforts were sold shamelessly to tourists who straggled in for the
brief warm season, some coming just to admire at the foreign women who sunbathed in the nude. One particular bed
& breakfast was being assessed for damages after the war and everything appeared to be in order until someone
realized that the drawers had fronts but no backs. The insides of the drawers were used for whittling souvenirs.
Norton focused most of his marine research as Port of Erin on the Isle of Man and in turn became something of a
wool gatherer as well; drawing together the threads of local history along with his studies of any and all species of
sea live.
It was as Port of Erin that Norton observes the casualties that remained after the dredges dragging for herring
passed on. He comments that lost dredges keep fishing, with dead creatures trapped within becoming the bait for
the next generations of hungry captives. Norton explains, “Even if all of the fishermen become extinct, some of their
gear would go on fishing…we call it ghost fishing.”
While in California, Norton followed in the footsteps of John Steinbeck and the legendary biologist Ed Ricketts, the
inspiration for the character of Doc in Steinbeck’s “Cannery Row.” Everywhere that Norton goes he records the
significant and the humorous, such as his experience in a Spanish bar where the ceiling appeared to be black. His
companion tossed a sardine up into the air and the blackness shifted and moved, revealing a white ceiling under a
thick layer of flies.
For those remotely interested in marine life, especially the activity of plankton or the lovemaking techniques of
dolphins, there is sure to be something in “Underwater to Get Out of the Rain” that will catch the reader’s attention.
Norton is not only an expert in his field, but he is a storyteller who is able to find a reason for a story in even the most
humble creatures and surroundings.
creatures that live in houses with hinged roofs and eat dust particle size debris with enjoyment, finds life of any kind,
especially under the sea, to be quite exciting. Throughout his book, “Underwater to Get Out of the Rain,” Norton
offers thousands of facts painlessly with very subtle and oftentimes good humor aimed towards himself. He would like
to have readers believe that when he was a boy he was an indifferent scholar whose main claim to a bright and shiny
future were his detailed drawings of snails.
His book moves from Liverpool to California and then onto the Isle of Man, also known at the Manx Riviera, a small
island off the northwest coast of Britain best known for its famous motorcycle races. It was also a popular holiday site
where both German and Jewish refugees were interned during World War II. Norton describes that era in amazing
detail. Everyone had to pitch in and do whatever work came their way. One man who was asked to do a plumbing
job said that he was a gynecologist “but it is also a matter of tubes and pipe.”
The temporary population took to carving all types of gewgaws and knitting with small bits of wool that local sheep left
on the barbed wire fences. The results of these efforts were sold shamelessly to tourists who straggled in for the
brief warm season, some coming just to admire at the foreign women who sunbathed in the nude. One particular bed
& breakfast was being assessed for damages after the war and everything appeared to be in order until someone
realized that the drawers had fronts but no backs. The insides of the drawers were used for whittling souvenirs.
Norton focused most of his marine research as Port of Erin on the Isle of Man and in turn became something of a
wool gatherer as well; drawing together the threads of local history along with his studies of any and all species of
sea live.
It was as Port of Erin that Norton observes the casualties that remained after the dredges dragging for herring
passed on. He comments that lost dredges keep fishing, with dead creatures trapped within becoming the bait for
the next generations of hungry captives. Norton explains, “Even if all of the fishermen become extinct, some of their
gear would go on fishing…we call it ghost fishing.”
While in California, Norton followed in the footsteps of John Steinbeck and the legendary biologist Ed Ricketts, the
inspiration for the character of Doc in Steinbeck’s “Cannery Row.” Everywhere that Norton goes he records the
significant and the humorous, such as his experience in a Spanish bar where the ceiling appeared to be black. His
companion tossed a sardine up into the air and the blackness shifted and moved, revealing a white ceiling under a
thick layer of flies.
For those remotely interested in marine life, especially the activity of plankton or the lovemaking techniques of
dolphins, there is sure to be something in “Underwater to Get Out of the Rain” that will catch the reader’s attention.
Norton is not only an expert in his field, but he is a storyteller who is able to find a reason for a story in even the most
humble creatures and surroundings.
