The Message of the Clouds: How You Can Forecast the Weather

Oliver Perkins

Capstan Independent Publishing

£8.99 paperback (+ Kindle)

There are cloud formations and atmospheric zones that one swots up to pass the RYA exams: there are skies that give good or bad feelings when viewed from the cockpit but the value of Oliver Perkins jacket-pocket-sized book is in his success at bringing the two together. Gnomic mutterings about “if the goose honks high” won’t be more than briefly effective in alerting or reassuring one’s crew and are of little use in passage planning. The Message of the Clouds provides the science to back up such empirical observations – and it works even when the internet is Off. Definitely one for the Christmas gift locker.