The Great Flood Travels Through a Sodden Landscape

"A reporter of fearless imagination"
– Simon Jenkins, The Times

"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