Michael following your previous comment I forwarded your response to
the publisher who came back with this response

Many thanks for your message which has been forwarded to me .
Contrary to the implication from from Mr Messenger, I began
discussions concerning publishing Dr Edwards' book with him something
like two years ago.
It does not pretend to be wholly a work of original research - the
first sentence of his Acknowledgements makes that perfectly clear. It
is rather an excellent work of synthesis, based on his own work and
that of others who are exhaustively noted in two pages of
Acknowledgements and eight pages of  manuscript and printed sources
(many of which are obscure and not widely available).
I am all the more perplexed because Dr Edwards says in his
Acknowledgements:"Michael Messenger's 2007 book on North Devon Clay
has been an invaluable source of information for the Petrockstowe
Basin. I am grateful to him for helpful comments on a draft of Chapter
6 and for permission to reproduce a figure from his book."
Yours sincerely,
Steven Pugsley


On 15/11/2011, Michael Messenger <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I would like to clarify my earlier posting on
> this subject as I am deeply embarrassed that I
> have, clumsily, given a wrong impression.
>
> I have seen much of the text of this book and
> whilst the author has not been able to explore
> some likely resources he has done a major job in
> gathering together information from a wide
> variety of published sources to cover, I think,
> all non-metal mines in Devon. His strength is
> geology but he has spread his net much wider and
> found some quite little known sources. This is a
> very detailed account of some little known Devon
> mines. I shall be buying a copy.
>
> Michael Messenger
>
>
>
> At 09:11 13/11/2011, you wrote:
>>This is a well thought out book, well produced and superbly illustrated and
>>will appeal to members who have a strong interest in stone and coal mining
>>often forgotten in Devon Mining History
>>
>>Publishers description - the reader is taken on a gentle journey through
>>Devon to discover the fascinating non-metal mines of the county. They
>>include the Penn Recca slate mine near Buckfastleigh in south Devon, the
>>culm mines of north Devon, the whetstone mines of the Blackdown Hills in
>>east Devon, the Beer Stone mines, also in east Devon, the ball clay mines
>>of south and north Devon, and the lignite (brown coal) mines of Bovey
>>Tracey, south Devon. The book explores the mines and their history, the
>>methods used by the miners, and something about the miners and their lives.
>>The journey spans 2,000 years, from the time when the Romans tunnelled into
>>the hills near Beer for Beer Stone, to when the last ball clay mine closed
>>in 1999. These 2,000 years of mining history, although long by human
>>standards, seem insignificant when the time span represented by the
>>deposits that were being mined is considered. The formations exploited
>>range in age from the slates of Penn Recca, around 360 million years old,
>>to the 30 million year old lignites of Bovey Tracey. The reader is taken on
>>a parallel journey into deep geological time to discover how these rocks
>>came into being, and what the world was like when they formed many millions
>>of years ago. The book will appeal to readers with an interest in mines and
>>mining, industrial archaeology, geology, history, and landscape, or who
>>just like a good story about some fascinating episodes in the development
>>of the industrial history of Devon. Richard Edwards has lived and worked
>>for many years as a geologist in Devon. After reading geology at Nottingham
>>University he completed his doctorate at Exeter University, after which he
>>joined the British Geological Survey and worked as a field geologist,
>>firstly in Africa (Zambia) and later in Hampshire, Devon and Somerset. He
>>was involved in the geological surveys of the Newton Abbot, Southampton,
>>Exeter, Minehead and Sidmouth 1:50,000-scale map areas. Apart from
>>Geological Survey maps, memoirs and reports, he has published papers on the
>>Tertiary of Hampshire and Devon, and the Permian of Devon.
>>
>>  Price £16.99 + P&P
>>
>>available from myself and other book sellers www.moorebooks.co.uk
>>
>>  Cheers
>>
>>
>>
>>Mike
>