SURFING Brilliant Corners is much more than just a book with nice surfing pictures.

Written by professional longboarder and champion surfer Sam Bleakley, the book takes the reader from the beaches of his West Cornwall home on a colourful journey around the world.

Illustrated with stunning images by John Callahan, the pages conjure up a lifestyle far removed from that of your average weekend surfer, and shows how, when you are lucky enough to be as talented as the author, the sport can take you places you had never dreamed of visiting.

With frequent comparisons with music, specifically, Thelonious Monk's 1950s album, Brilliant Corners, Sam Bleakley goes some distance to explain the spiritual side of surfing, being at times in tune and at times at battle with the

forces of nature.

He says: 'Along the way the ocean has knocked me senseless, torn ligaments, ruined my sinuses, reduced my spectrum of hearing, dragged me across infectious life coral reefs, held me down so I am close to drowning and engineered a face to face encounter with a tiger shark.

'But such bruises generate a kind of wisdom, and they are suffered because the rewards of surfing are so immense.

'The more I travel and surf, the more I see surfing not as escapism, but as a grounded and positive way to flag up our pressing global environmental concerns.'

The photographs by John Callahan are, simply, gorgeous. In full colour, they bring far-flung corners of the world and its people vividly to life.

From a cockfighting pit in the Philippines, the highest mountain tops of Haiti and the deserts of Mauritania, to the Bhuddist temples of China — with any number of classic surfing shots in between.

Surfing Brilliant Corners is published by Alison Hodge, ISBN 9780906720806, priced £15.

JANE HONEY