THE FINGER OF LIGHTThis is the definitive history of the world's most definitive lighthouse. Fourteen miles off the port of Plymouth, lies what the captain of the Mayflower described as `this wicked reef of twenty-three rust-red granite rocks ... great ragged stones around which the sea continuously eddies, a great danger to all ships hereabouts'. Before the seventeenth century, no one had considered it possible to put a warning light in such an exposed and dangerous position, but in 1698, Henry Winstanley completed the first lighthouse on the Eddystone rocks. It was a wooden structure, and after one of the most violent storms in history, in November 1703, no trace of it remained.A second wooden lighthouse built by John Rudyerd was in turn succeeded, later in the eighteenth century, by John Smeaton's masterpiece of engineering in stone. This saw service for over 120 years, until a new tower, much larger than anything previously built there, was erected alongside by James Douglass in 1881.This book, fully illustrated and informed by original sources, tells the astonishing stories of Eddystone - tales of courage, genius, fraud and horror. Researched over ten years, Eddystone: The finger of light was first published in 1998 to mark the 300th anniversary of Winstanley's lighthouse. Seafarer Books is pleased to present this new and revised edition for 2005.Film-maker and author Mike Palmer, aged 50,lives in Cornwall with his wife Jan and daughter Lara. Always attracted to the sea, he has made a particular study of pharology and, with the help of Trinity House, has visited many lighthouses on isolated rocks. He joined the Royal Navy for a short time at the age of 15, since when he has enjoyed a variety of jobs, including baboon- and lion-keeper, film production assistant, doorman at a top London hotel, cinema manager, prison officer and ferryman. He has wonmany national awards, including the title of MGM Showman of the Year.
