THE NARROW SEA: BARRIER,BRIDGE AND GATEWAY TO THE WORLD - THE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CHANNEL.

UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.[Complete number line 10 - 1 descending.] FINE/FINE.No owner inscrptn but price-clip to dw/dj.Bright,crisp,clean,glossy laminated,colour pictorial illustrated dw/dj,with brown,black and yellow lettering; with negligible shelf-wear and creasing to edges and corners - no nicks or tears present.Top+fore-edges bright and clean; contents bright,tight,clean,solid and sound - pristine - no dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corner tips,appears unread - apart from my own collation. Publisher's bright,crisp,clean,sharp-cornered,original plain black cloth boards with bright,crisp,blocked silver gilt letters to spine/backstrip and immaculate b/w English Channel map illustrated endpapers.UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn,1-340pp [paginated] includes prologue,18 chapters, 8pp of both contemporary,historical b/w+colour reproduction illustrations and b/w+colour photographs in 1 block, between pp166/7,endnotes,a bibliography and an index; plus [unpaginated] half-title+title pages,a dedication,a contents list/table,text permissions and 2pp blanks at rear. Beside its European neighbours - the Mediterranean,the Black Sea,the Baltic and the North Sea - the English Channel seems an insignificant piece of water.Its very name suggest the domestically diminutive,for 'Channel' derives from the Dutch 'canal',and the French 'Manche' from it's sleeve-like shape.And yet,the Channel tells a historical tale as complicated and vital as the Mediterranean,the Baltic or even the Atlantic Ocean. Separating Britain from Europe,hindering invasion and producing a border more effective than any barbed wire, the Channel also serves as a link between mainland and island.For thousands of years ships have travelled back and forth, bearing people as diverse as William the Conqueror, Francis Drake and George Snelling,'the great smuggler of Broadstairs'.Leaders such as Julius Caesar,Napoleon and Hitler have battled for sovereignty over the narrow sea, while galleons,ships,submarines and Spitfires have tried to stop them. 'The Narrow Sea' tells the story of the English Channel from the land bridge that linked Britain to the continent nine thousand years ago to the Channel Tunnel of the twenty-first century.Drawing from original texts as varied as the Anglo- Saxon Chronicle and a soldier's Second World War diaries,Peter Unwin charts the landscape and seascape of northern Europe's gateway to the oceans and reveals a history of political and military intrigue,but also a story of individual lives transformed.The Channel's powerful winds,tides and currents have complicated navigation,dictated naval strategy and frustrated invaders,fishermen and cross-Channel swimmers alike. Greater than the greatest of rivers,as influential as the widest ocean,the Channel's place in history has been set. Please contact seller,for correct shipping/P+p quotes - particularly ALL overseas customers - BEFORE ordering through the order page!
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