The Great Flood

A BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week

Edward Platt has travelled the country visiting places that have flooded and meeting the people affected. He met people struggling to stop their houses falling into the sea and others whose homes had been engulfed. He investigated disasters natural and man-made, and heard about the conflicting attitudes towards those charged with preventing them.

Combining travel writing and reportage with readings of history, literature and myth, The Great Flood explores the way floods have shaped the physical landscape of Britain and left their mark on its inhabitants. It also dramatizes the experience of being flooded and considers what will happen as the planet warms and the waters rise, illuminating the reality behind the statistics and headlines that we all too often ignore.

'A thoughtful, non-judgemental account . . . from a subtle, self-effacing chronicler'
Ken Worpole, Caught by the River

'The real power of the book is its insight into the psychological burden of flooding, both during the crisis and in the long road to normality afterwards'
Church Times

'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'
Guardian

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.