The Royal National Lifeboat Institution was established in 1824 and has a long and proud tradition of saving life at sea. Today, the volunteer lifeboat crews on the south coast of England and the Channel Islands operate high-tech state-of-the-art lifeboats in their work of saving lives at sea in and around some of the busiest sea lanes in the world.

The RNLI currently operates thirty lifeboat stations on the south coast of England and around the Channel Islands, and this comprehensive book has details of every one, with information about their history, rescues and current lifeboats. It also includes details of old stations that have been closed and the many dramatic, courageous and daring rescues undertaken by the lifeboat crews from Sussex, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Dorset, Devon and the Channel Islands are brought to life.

Author Nicholas Leach has amassed a wealth of information about the lifeboats and lifeboat stations of the south coast and the Channel Islands, past and present, visiting every one to provide a complete and up-to-date record of life-saving in the seas off this beautiful and picturesque, but often dangerous, coastline.