A visit to the Swiss town of Chateau d'Oex proves there's much more to ballooning than just hot air. By Anthony Lambert The 1956 film of Around the World in Eighty Days has one quintessential image: the urbane David Niven as Phileas Fogg...

Byline: MARY RIDDELL RICHARD GRIFFITHS may look like a Santa figure of a man. But that belies his superb stage performances - and a tragic childhood where, for years, the only sounds were those of silence. Richard Griffiths is exhausted. ...

If you are one of those imaginative people who in fancy or reality would like to enter another world where none of the ordinary rules apply, and where on every hand scenes new to the eye of man unfold in endless succession, then "The Silent World" is the book for you. It is the story of Capt. Jacques-Yves Cousteau of the French Navy and of his development of the "aqualung."… The book is profusely illustrated and the underwater shots, particularly those in full color, are e...

Although good intentions are no substitute for quality, one cannot resist some sympathy for the author [of Life and Death in a Coral Sea] whose Silent World opened a new realm for millions, whose aqualung pioneered rewarding fields for both research and enjoyment, and whose books, films and other activities are seriously dedicated to underwater exploration. There are few men like Jacques-Yves Cousteau, but they have an important role to play in the development of science, chiefly because they provide that i...

Although Cousteau's newer books are fascinating to read, they do not strike immediate fire as [The Silent World] does. The beginning paragraph, when the author and his friends unpack the first aqualung, captures the reader's attention at once, and the interest never wanes. Here is all the excitement of science fiction along with the reality of the here and now. Here is a high-spirited, adventure-packed, personal narrative of undersea salvage, scientific research, and exploration in the Mediter...