If there was ever a good reason for sea and lake monsters not to rear their (arguably) ugly heads, it is that much of the writing that appears on them is shoddy and naïve. Such is demonstrated in this new book: it has good bits, but could have been so much better.

Paul Harrison is well known as a cryptozoological researcher specialising in dracontology (the study of sea and lake monsters) and in this, his second book on the subject, he synthesises British sea and lake monster literature. After a rambling introduction that reads like a stream of consciousness, the sea and lake monsters of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales are reviewed.