Below the Edge of Darkness

Critics Review

• A thrilling blend of hard science and high adventure

  New York Times Book Review

• A vivid account of ocean life… Stylish, eloquent

  Guardian Book of the Day

• Edie’s story is one of hardscrabble optimism, two-fisted exploration and groundbreaking research. As I’ve said many times, I’d have wrapped my submersible, the DEEPSEA CHALLENGER, in bacon if it would have lured the elusive giant squid from the depths. In Below the Edge of Darkness, Edie tells you how she did it

  James Cameron

• To shed light on a subject is what any scientific book should do. To go into it in depth without losing the reader is a harder task. Edith Widder’s subject is light itself – the manufacture of light by strange and eerie denizens of the deep sea – and her scintillating style is worthy of it. This is a book to delight the general reader while simultaneously informing the professional: a book of marvels, marvellously written

  Richard Dawkins

• My experience of exploring the deep ocean and its alien life with Edie Widder was fabulous. She enthrals us with many such stories in her book. I recommend it

  Ray Dalio

• Personal and page-turning, adventurous and awe-inspiring, Below the Edge of Darkness sparkles with the thrill of exploration and glows with an urgent plea for the future of our precious seas. Comparisons to Jacques Cousteau spring to mind, as Edith Widder shares the profound journey of her life -one as unique and important as the unexplored realms of our very own planet

  Juli Berwald, author of Spineless: the Science of Jellyfish and the Art of Growing a Backbone

• Luminous – the topic, the heroic journey, and the author herself. Dive in with Edith Widder, trail-blazing scientist and explorer, as she reveals the galaxy of light and life in the universe below the surface of the sea, out-shining sceptical male colleagues with dignity, grace and a robust sense of humour

  Sylvia Earle, National Geographic Explorer in Residence; Founder, Mission Blue, Oceanographer