World Book Day

Today is World Book Day and I thought I would reveal an interest that I have in the Coelacanth.


In 1938 the curator of the East London (South Africa), Marjorie Courtney Latimer, was intrigued by a fish that a trawler had brought into the port off the Chalumna River


She took it away and sent a small drawing and description to the head of the ichthyology department at Rhodes University in Grahamstown. He was away on holiday and it took several days for the letter to reach him.


He immediately recognised the fish as one thought to have been extinct for 66 million years.


I met JLB Smith while I was at Rhodes and became fascinated with the story.


Smith named the fish Latimeria chalumnae.


These two books were written by him. The larger, Sea Fishes of Southern Africa, is a signed first edition, inscribed with his name and the date 5/XII/49.


The smaller, Old Four Legs, is his account of the entire story including successful expeditions to find further living specimens.


I have other books on the subject but decided to feature just these two.


A final anecdote is about the smaller book.


My father was a prodigious reader and owned many books on a wide range of topics.
He became rather exasperated by friends who borrowed his books and never returned them. So he devised a method to recognise his books. He placed a small red disc on the spine of the book and allowed his eyes to wander over bookshelves when visiting friends. He retrieved many books in that way.


One day, many years after his death, we were visiting South African acquaintances in Winchester, England and I spotted this book with its giveaway red dot.


I claimed it in his name!!