Michael Pye.
The Edge of the World: how the North Sea made us who we are.
Penguin. 2014
When the Romans retreated from northern Europe,
they left behind the lands at the very edge of the known world to the barbarians.
Yet a thousand years later the countries surrounding the North Sea
were at the heart of scientific, mercantile and artistic transformations
and formed the centre of the first truly global empires.
In The Edge of the World, Michael Pye explains how a small but dangerous body of water inspired the saints, spies, fishermen, pirates, traders and marauders who lived beside and journeyed across the North Sea to give birth to our modern world.