Fred Normandale remembers when his home town of Scarborough was one of the great centres for the fishing industry and had the characters to match. He has turned his memories into a nostalgic book full of tales of his life and adventures at sea. "I grew up in the 'bottom end' of Scarborough among some wonderful characters big men with big hearts. The fishermen were extremely hard working and when ashore mostly hard drinking though never mixing the two pursuits. I thought this was a normal b...

This, the fifth and final volume of life at sea and on shore takes the story to the noughties. Earlier volumes roughly followed the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s.Sadly, the Yorkshire trawling industry is now in terminal decline following the heady days of earlier decades. There is still humour, mischief, characters, sinking’s and near misses to recall. The latter part of the book relates to a whole new life at sea, sailing on tall ships, meeting more characters, making many new friends and...

Ebbing Tide the fourth and final volume in the Tide series has been difficult to complete. The earlier books were a pleasure to write as I related some extremely funny and zany moments while growing up and making my career in the North Sea fishing industry. In this volume Ive continued with the humour but have also narrated the long slow death of the way of life I was born to. In 1971 the UK joined the Common Market and control of our national waters and fish stocks (but not oil) was surre...

This second book from this writer relates to some of the North Sea fishermen in the early 1970s through the author's eyes. "Fishing is an extreme occupation and adversity breeds characters. These hard working hard drinking men were wonderful characters living life to the full. Their way of life has almost gone and their like will never be seen again." Fred Normandale