A NEW history of the steamers, ferries and personalities — including Henry Bell — that have served the Clyde resorts since 1812 has just been published.

It is entitled ‘Pleasures of the Firth: 200 Years of Clyde Steamers’, and author Andrew Clark, a Financial Times journalist, tells the colourful story from the first steamer, Henry Bell’s Comet, in 1812 to the present day.

"This Is Your Life" used to be one of the most popular programmes on television, featuring well-known personalities.

The programme was revived in Helensburgh on Thursday August 23, but with two major differences: firstly, it took the form of a play rather than a TV programme; and secondly, the subjects of the play had been dead for many years . . .

AUTHORS Iain Quinn and Alistair Deayton signed copies of their new book '200 Years of Clyde Paddle Steamers' — which started with Henry Bell's Comet — aboard the paddle steamer Waverley on Friday August 10 on a trip from Glasgow to Rothesay.

In the book Deayton and Quinn look at the two centuries of Clyde paddle steamers, illustrating the most famous, such as the Columba, Jeanie Deans and Waverley, — as well as the piers they sailed from, from Rothesay to Helensburgh and from Loch Goil to Loch Long.