The Great Flood by Edward Platt
A journey that explores floods and flooding in all its forms: Platt investigates the ways in which water has shaped our landscape, our literature and our sense of ourselves.
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 *
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 *
Edward Platt was born in 1968 and lives in London. His first book, Leadville, won a Somerset Maugham Award and the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. He is also the author of The Great Flood and The City of Abraham, a journey through Hebron, the only place in the West Bank where Palestinians and Israelis lived side by side.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780330420280 |
| ISBN 10 | 0330420283 |
| Title | The Great Flood |
| Author | Edward Platt |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Pan Macmillan |
| Year published | 2020-06-25 |
| Number of pages | 192 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |