The Great Flood: Travels Through a Sodden Landscape

How we visualise climate catastrophe tends toward the epic, the exotic . . . Platt instead locates its effects in the everyday: the flooding experienced by England’s picture postcard towns and occasionally decrepit coastal settlements . . . The Great Flood makes the global local in the same way that the climate emergency does. Platt’s writing combines sharp reportage with a poet’s eye for a striking image that vividly captures the otherworldly, waterlogged landscapes he travels through . . . “When it comes to climate change, we are all to blame.” -- Guardian A reporter of fearless imagination -- Simon Jenkins * The Times * [An] engrossing account of floods ancient and modern * Sunday Times * Fascinating * Choice * Sobering * i * [An] absorbing blend of travel writing, reportage and interviews [giving] a very timely picture of how water shapes both our landscapes and our sense of who we are -- Caroline Sanderson, The Bookseller A rigorous investigation . . . with such an impressive range of references . . . the real power of the book is its insight into the psychological burden of flooding -- Hannah Malcolm * Church Times * A thoughtful, non-judgemental account of the increasing vulnerability of many parts of Britain to flooding. It comes from a subtle, self-effacing chronicler whose early book, Leadville: A biography of the A40, was an indispensable contribution to London’s uncanny geography -- Ken Worpole * Caught by the River * In this vitally important book . . . Edward Platt travelled to every waterlogged, storm struck, flooded and overwhelmed area of Britain . . . Platt is both keen observer, sympathetic listener, eager apprentice and shrewd commentator, with a weather eye on the future and a deep understanding of the past -- Ebenezer Presents Platt frequently draws on literature, whether William Blake, J. G. Ballard, Carol Ann Duffy, Rebecca Solnit or the Epic of Gilgamesh, but the book’s main focus is local: Platt covers ground on foot in the aftermath of deluges, around the tributaries of England and Wales . . . Sympathetic to the unromantic, everyday nature of suffering, Platt also has an eye for the absurd . . . Striking environmental facts are relayed through equally striking stories . . . The Great Flood’s strength lies in the vivid historical context in which Platt’s subject is couched. * TLS *