A fascinating book Living with the Sea was launched by Rushen Heritage Trust on a very wet evening last week. Despite drenching rain, 140 people turned up at Port St Mary Town Hall.

The book is the culmination of five years’ work explained trust founder Hugh Davidson. Two were spent deciding the theme and format and it took three years to compile and co-ordinate chapters written by the 10 authors.

The finished product is a very high quality and intimate investigation into Port St Mary with the constant murmur of the sea and its impact in both the fore or background.

Much discussion went into which year to begin and they decided 1829 was a good starting point and it runs to Millennium year in 1979.

It looks at all imaginable aspects, from fishing and tourism to street signs and commerce. But the theme of the sea gives it an appeal that reaches far beyond Manx waters explained Professor Davidson. ’We want the book to appeal to people living by the sea, people who would like to live by the sea and people who used to live by the sea.

’We wanted it to have universal appeal to anyone who lives by the sea whether that be Boston, Hamburg or Singapore.

’There’s the sea in the summer and there are tourists on the beach and then it gets angry when there are high winds, the sea is our friend or foe, you have to get used to its moods. Without the sea Port St Mary would not exist, there’s the fishing and it draws in tourists, but it can also be destructive.’

The ’mega co-ordination’ of the copy and photographs fell to trust co-ordinator John Quirk, who did a ’terrific job’ said Professor Davidson and images were sourced by John Qualtrough from his remarkable collection of 230,000!

Thanks went to the authors for the long hours of research and writing of the book, which has been published with the financial support of Culture Vannin, Gough Ritchie Trust and Manx National Heritage.

’Living with the Sea’, RRP £18.95 is at island bookshops, www.amazon.co.uk and www.rushenheritage.org.