The North Sea

A rollicking, surprising, often moving personal history of a big part of the British story that has long needed its own narrative. Page-turningly entertaining -- ANDREW MARR
The North Sea is a rich and adventurous exploration of one of the great arenas of British history -- MICHAEL PALIN
I enjoyed this enormously, the first full account of the North Sea, above the waves and below. It lends itself to the unique storytelling ability of Alistair Moffat -- GORDON BROWN
Moffat's thesis is that the North Sea made modern Britain, and he ranges widely in arguing for it. We're swept from the earliest migrations to our shores to Thatcher's privatisation of oil; along the way, there's swashbuckling, fish, nostalgic fun and plenty of interesting trivia [ . . . ] Moffat shows real literary skill * * Telegraph * *
My favourite kind of travel writing: lyrical prose but also endlessly fascinating stories that reminds us of the rich and deep history of our east coast and waters beyond. The North Sea is a beautiful book -- JAMES HOLLAND
Alistair Moffat's The North Sea perfectly pitches itself against that awesome body of water as a humble, expert travelogue - and entirely succeeds as such. A pungent evocation of that coastal experience - a salty, vinegary, saintly book. I felt as though I was there -- TOM NANCOLLAS
Deftly weaving together his travels along the North Sea coast of Britain with the history of its peoples, from the Picts and the Saxons to the youthful heroes who piloted Lancaster bombers eighty years ago, this is a marvellously readable and highly original account of the role of the North Sea in the making of England and Scotland -- DAVID ABULAFIA
A delight - rigorously researched and hugely informative - a masterful telling of the stories of the sea that has shaped our island nation. I loved it. A perfect mix of personal and historical -- GAVIN ESLER
From herring schools to holiday camps, naval fleets to soaring fulmars, Alistair Moffat charts this edgy sea in all its moods and surging magnificence. In prose as sparkling as summer wavelets, often zingily tanged with ozone and seaweed, the (veteran) traveller-historian brings the past to vivid life, painting a portrait of sea edge and coastal land, trawling through the bountiful blessings of a sea's fishy harvests and charting the wild terrors of its gathering storms -- JON GOWER
I enjoyed The North Sea a lot. Alistair Moffat is a wise and humane companion on the journey and his writing is charming. It's the story of how the rough sea to our east shaped England and Scotland, told with a twinkle in the eye and a listening ear to the stories that Moffat comes across on his way -- LEWIS BASTON