Imperiled Ocean: Human Stories from a Changing Sea

“Drawing on Nancy Mitford’s own poignant childhood memories from her exuberant novel “The Pursuit of Love," Laura Thompson vividly evokes the swarm of brilliant and beautiful sisters, and their lone brother, growing up carefree in a succession of country houses in Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire.” -- New York Times Book Review “Three million US citizens work on the ocean — in fishing, oil and gas, tourism and other industries and services. The global figure is three billion. Journalist Laura Trethewey set out in 2015 on 'an extended listening tour' to hear some of their stories... The vivid result—her debut—persuades us that 'the ocean’s story is also our own.'” -- Nature Magazine “Laura Trethewey’s The Imperiled Ocean . . . flourishes. The most frightening of these chapters is an account of the author’s volunteer work for Ocean Legacy, in cleaning waste plastic from a remote British Columbia shoreline. There, in a lush wetland, “nature’s cathedral,” Ms. Trethewey finds that “plastic carpeted the ground. Plastic bottles, plastic buoys, Styrofoam everywhere, like someone had Photoshopped a garbage dump onto the forest.” Ms. Tretheway writes that, "The most common motivation for going to sea, unsurprisingly, was money.” Indeed, for reasons of money, migrants die, cruise ships steer around the law, and plastic is made, sold and discarded much faster than it can be collected and disposed of. We’re enriching ourselves—some of us—into the sort of madness where our id boils up and consumes us.” -- Richard Adams Carey - The Wall Street Journal “Thompson (The Six: The Lives of the Mitford Sisters, 2016) focuses here on the eldest daughter, writing eloquently and with deep understanding about the Mitford family dynamics. Whether it was estrangement from her parents, conflicts with her sisters, or damaging romantic relationships, Thompson succeeds brilliantly in revealing how every aspect of Mitford’s life was processed and dealt with in her writing. Thompson employs witty humor and uses it seamlessly, as Mitford did when she wrote about fascism, the Nazis, sexual orientation, adulthood, and beliefs.” -- Booklist “The Imperiled Ocean will appeal to both seafaring types and broader audiences looking for personal stories about universal human experiences.” -- Physics Today