KEVIN PYNE, of Lake Street, Dartmouth, writes:

I brought home a Chronicles of Dartmouth, volume two, at the weekend and I have to say that I thought it to be a fantastic book and a must for both the long term locals and those who have settled to live here within the communities on either side of the River Dart.

It will also be a great book for anyone who just loves the place.

 I thought how gracious and big both Tindle newspapers and the editorial staff of the Chronicle have been in opening up their vast archives for all to re-examine in what is a festival  of local events and history.

 Phil Scoble's début offering as a serious writer is both witty and knowledgeable – even excellent – while Richard Webb's eye for detail and fine book production, together with his love of Dartmouth and the river, lift this book to a status that no other social history book has achieved I feel – certainly in my lifetime

 The pictures are taken with a younger, more modern, youthful eye and blasted up in many cases to centre page size.

 There are several pictures which could – if they had been submitted – won national photojournalistic awards.

It's a must for birthdays, the Regatta and Christmas. It will sit among all the books that deal with the goings on within this community forever.

 Well done once again to all at the Chronicle and well done to any one who had any input because, odd that it may seem, it's only when you see what you know and love bound up in a book that you actually realise, as my late wife never let me forget, 'how beautiful what you see every day actually is'.