A beautifully illustrated guide to living sea anemones, soft and hard corals, sea pens and sea fans.

The sea anemones are split into 4 groups: those that occur in groups, on the shore and in shallow water, on soft sea-bed, and those on other animals, but things are rarely so clear-cut and this inevitably means genera are split (eg Sagartia).

The photos have perhaps been selected for beauty rather than to help with identification, or maybe it’s the diver’s eye rather than a rockpooler’s, but almost all the animals are illustrated in the open state. The useful characters on the column which are best seen when closed are often not illustrated - even the startling blue beadlets of the Beadlet Anemone (nor are they mentioned in the species account!)