To mark 50 years of photographing shipping John Hendy has published Ferries of Dover - Through five decades 1960-2011.
Apart from an encyclopaedic knowledge of the subject John has built up a huge collection of photogaphs over the years and it will be quite obvious that just the few reproduced here make up a valuable record of the history of the town and harbour.
The 200 or so images take you from the earliest vessels Isle of Thanet and Canterbury - built in the '20s - right up to P & O's latest offering, Spirit of Britain. Although mainly devoted to hulled vessels, Hoverspeed and the Jetfoils are also included - although their story is another one.
The introduction and photo captions are clear and informative, illustrating the monumental changes that have occurred in the transport of passengers - and particularly freight - across the channel over the years. Browsing though the pages I find what is striking is the increase in the size of the vessels, and some of the pictures of the older traditional ferries in bad weather remind us of crossings we would sometimes rather forget!
The book is produced by Ferry Publications in the same format as my Cruise Ships of Dover and is available at WH Smith; although I feel the NT at Langdon and the Museum shop will also have it in stock very soon.
