- Publisher: Canongate
- Year: 2025
- Format: Hardback
- Pages: 350pp
- Illustrated: No
- Dimensions: 240x160mm
- Condition: New
- Weight: 0.6kg
- ISBN: 9781837261222
- Product code: 545595
The North Sea
Along the Edge of Britain
Alistair Moffat New Hardback
Postscript summary
In a blend of history and travelogue, Alistair Moffat recalls a year spent exploring 1,300 kilometres of coastline from the North Foreland lighthouse in Kent to the Pictish stones at Dunnicaer, and then out to the Orcadian stone circles. Taking in archaeological finds, invasions, industrial developments, and seaside towns, he builds a wide-ranging picture of how the North Sea has influenced Britain’s history.
Product information
Full publisher description
The North Sea, a maritime highway and the edge of a nation of islanders with a proud sea-faring past. Running from Kent and the Rhine estuary to the Norwegian coast and the tip of the Shetland islands, it has been home to warring tribes, foreign invaders, lost civilisations and holidaymakers. Its history spans millennia, since a seismic shift sent land retreating and water rushing in. Today, the North Sea continues to rise, claiming land mass as the east coast crumbles and sinks.
In The North Sea, renowned historian Alistair Moffat spends a year travelling its shores to better understand our relationship to the sea. He takes us on an epic, sweeping history from the Kentish coast to flooded homes, crossing wild fenland and Brexit fault lines, visiting well-worn seaside towns and windswept island monasteries.
The story he tells is one of newcomers and the mark they left, of Roman invasions, the arrival of the Saxons and the Viking raids. But it is also a story of those they met, of Pictish citadels and Orcadian stone circles. It is a story of technological advancement, of submarine engineering and weather forecasting. It is a story of huge industry, from whaling expeditions and fishing trawlers to the boom of North Sea oil and offshore wind farms. This is the story of how the North Sea shaped us and will continue to do so; it is above all a story of insistent, inescapable change.
In The North Sea, renowned historian Alistair Moffat spends a year travelling its shores to better understand our relationship to the sea. He takes us on an epic, sweeping history from the Kentish coast to flooded homes, crossing wild fenland and Brexit fault lines, visiting well-worn seaside towns and windswept island monasteries.
The story he tells is one of newcomers and the mark they left, of Roman invasions, the arrival of the Saxons and the Viking raids. But it is also a story of those they met, of Pictish citadels and Orcadian stone circles. It is a story of technological advancement, of submarine engineering and weather forecasting. It is a story of huge industry, from whaling expeditions and fishing trawlers to the boom of North Sea oil and offshore wind farms. This is the story of how the North Sea shaped us and will continue to do so; it is above all a story of insistent, inescapable change.
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545595
The North Sea
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In a blend of history and travelogue, Alistair Moffat recalls a year spent exploring 1,300 kilometres of coastline from the North Foreland lighthouse in Kent to the Pictish stones at Dunnicaer, and then out to the Orcadian stone circles. Taking in archaeological finds, invasions, industrial developments, and seaside towns, he builds a wide-ranging picture of how the North Sea has influenced Britain’s history.
Hardback
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productId:183238
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Alistair Moffat
General
240x160mm
Canongate
No
Hardback
Social & Cultural
