In the days of fear: How Mosman beach-siders grew up with sharks

[Extract] I grew up in Nyasaland in Central Africa, many miles and several countries away from the sea, which I saw only on occasional visits to South Africa. Instead, I spent a good deal of my boyhood holidays swimming and sailing in Lake Nyasa, a vast freshwater lake 587 kilometres long and 80 kilometres wide, whose main aquatic hazards were crocodiles and hippos.