25 Years A Lifetime at Sea is an engaging and interesting memoir of a former seaman in the Merchant Navy. The author was inspired to write the book after borrowing a tape relating to the pre-sea training school Vindicatrix in Sharpness which he had attended before joining the Merchant Navy in 1961 at the age of seventeen. Training in the catering arm and becoming a sea cook starting on the lowest rung as a 'catering boy' the book gives a descriptive account and a detailed insight into the operation of the merchant ships during the three decades covered by the memoir. The book is also partly devoted to the author's naval training and tells the story of how he moved up the ranks, rising from catering boy to catering officer, moving from ship to ship and travelling the world with detailed and interesting portrayals of the many places that he visited along with tales of life at sea, ranging from the mysterious (the messroom steward who jumped overboard in the night)to the gripping (escaping from a burning tanker by lifeboat).