HOME WATERS (PB)

This fascinating tour of the British coastline combines oceanography with maritime history. It reveals how the sea has been responsible for both salvation (the Channel alone checked the Nazi advance in 1940) and disaster (such as the catastrophic 1953 flooding that led to the development of the Thames tidal barrier), and covers everything from how ocean swell waves were first recorded in Britain in preparation for the D-Day landings, to how underwater light measurements paved the way for modern ocean satellite observation.