Never Turn Back – The RNLI since the Second World War

The achievements of the RNLI depend on ordinary people doing extraordinary things. This book features heroic rescues, awards and ceremonies together with survivor’s tales from the last 50 years of the lifeboat service.

Since the Second World War particularly from the mid 1960s the RNLI has experienced the most rapid advances in its long history. The transition from conventional to fast lifeboats, the introduction of inshore boats and the expansion into beach lifeguarding and sea safety have all dramatically changed the way the lifeboat service operates.

Author, Ray Kipling worked for RNLI for 27 years and has met hundreds if lifeboat crews, officials and fundraisers. He has witnessed the transition from open lifeboats crewed with fishermen, to modern boats with crews of well-trained landlubbers.

The authors’ narrative draws on first hand accounts of the rescues and the decisions that shaped the changing lifeboat service. Set within the context of the RNLI’s 180 year history, the book, uniquely focuses on the last 50 years and is based on personal and extensive inside knowledge of the lifeboat service.

Never Turn Back features triumph alongside tragedy, pain and glory, humour and grim determination. It is a rare collection of first hand accounts, from personal friends of the authors to medal winning lifeboatmen. These moving stories bring the dramatic history of the RNLI over the last 50 years to life.

Never Turn Back – The RNLI since the Second World War
By Ray and Susannah Kipling
Published by Sutton Publishing
ISBN 0 7509 4307 6
Hardback 210 pages
Price £19.99