Meet the author… underwater

Never mind Waterstones: a scuba diving author held his book launch underwater in a tank surrounded by sharks.

Mark Caney has been diving since he was eighteen, and as a big noise at PADI Europe can pretty much claim to have ‘seen it all, done it all.’

But his debut novel, ‘Dolphin Way – Rise of the Guardians’ is a first for him – as is launching a book underwater. Mark took several laminated copies of his work and dropped 5 metres into a tank at the Blue Planet Aquarium at Ellesmere Port in Cheshire.

Visitors to the centre were greeted by this unusual sight, taking place in the main exhibit of the aquarium, which has the largest collection of sharks in Europe.

The author even gave a “reading” by removing his regulator and mouthing an excerpt, surrounded by some of the ocean’s most impressive predators, including stingrays and sand tiger sharks. Three divers in attendance were able to follow, reading laminated sections of the book, and they also descended with copies of the novel.

“These weren’t really in a saleable condition after the dive!”, Mark grinned upon surfacing.

Hopefully the fish listened in… they certainly seem to enjoy schooling.