Tratman Award Citations
Tratman Award, 2019
The prestigious Tratman Award (in memory of E.K. Tratman, who died in 1978) is awarded annually for a caving-related, paper-based publication, to recognise excellence and encourage future improvement. It is one of the UK’s premier national caving awards, but is open to authors and publishers from Britain and Ireland.
First awarded for the publications of 1979, the Tratman Award was administered by the Ghar Parau Foundation when the foundation was a sub-charity of BCRA, but since 2019 (presenting the awards of 2018) when the foundation became an independent charity it has been directly awarded by BCRA. The judges are independent of the association and look for not only a high standard of writing and information content, but also factors such as the publication’s layout, print quality, binding and availability. The current award covers the publications of 2019 and was judged by Joe Duxbury, Ric Halliwell
Abstract
This essay gives a brief overview of the events of 26-27 August 1883, when the volcanic island of Krakatoa in Indonesia exploded; it generated tsunamis which killed over 36,000 people, was heard 3,000 miles away, and produced measurable changes in sea level and air pressure across the world. The essay then discusses the findings of the Royal Society’s Report on Krakatoa, and the reports in the periodical press of lurid sunsets resulting from Krakatoa’s dust moving through the atmosphere. It closes by examining literature inspired by Krakatoa, including a letter by Gerard Manley Hopkins, a poem by Alfred Tennyson, and novels by R. M. Ballantyne and M. P. Shiel.
Tratman Award Citations
Tratman Award, 2019
The prestigious Tratman Award (in memory of E.K. Tratman, who died in 1978) is awarded annually for a caving-related, paper-based publication, to recognise excellence and encourage future improvement. It is one of the UK’s premier national caving awards, but is open to authors and publishers from Britain and Ireland.
First awarded for the publications of 1979, the Tratman Award was administered by the Ghar Parau Foundation when the foundation was a sub-charity of BCRA, but since 2019 (presenting the awards of 2018) when the foundation became an independent charity it has been directly awarded by BCRA. The judges are independent of the association and look for not only a high standard of writing and information content, but also factors such as the publication’s layout, print quality, binding and availability. The current award covers the publications of 2019 and was judged by Joe Duxbury, Ric Halliwell