"This is a simply splendid book'e¦ Marsden'e(tm)s writing is delightfully honed as well as being profoundly well-researched. The Levelling Sea is a microcosm of British history, contained within its covers like a ship in a bottle'e¦ Marsden takes a spyglass to the past and shows us it in vivid colour. Convincing in its detail and exciting in its sweep, this portrait of a port and its people sails deep into the reader'e(tm)s imagination." Philip Hoare, Sunday Telegraph "A swashbuckling, but not unserious exploration of bravery, politics and 'fortunes'e¦as liquid as the sea that yielded them.''e(tm) Financial Times "Outstanding'e¦his pitch-perfect feel for a phrase, plus a gift as sublime as James Hamilton-Paterson or Jonathan Raban'e(tm)s for describing water, lifts The Levelling Sea far above ordinary history towards a state closer to poetry. This is the best of our island'e(tm)s liquid tale, told the way it should be." Bella Bathurst, Sunday Times 'e~Wonderfully poetic'e(tm) Sunday Times "'e¦Had Philip Marsden simply used his travel-writing skills to create a hymn to our surrounding seas, and had he decorated it with magical vocabulary alone, the book would have surely been a flawless triumph. But Mr Marsden has done a great deal more than that.

" Simon Winchester, We Love This Book "The outstanding read of the season'e¦ This is a strange, absorbing story, brilliantly told'e¦ The best non-fiction expands the particular to the general, and perpetually discovers the marvellous in the ordinary. Marsden pulls this off every time'e¦ Read for a good story and beautiful, unpretentious writing. Read it for its introduction, a brilliant essay on seagoing, or for no particular reason. But read it." Marine Quarterly 'e~[The growth of Falmouth is] a way of exploring our relationship with the sea, and its place in history and imagination.'e(tm) The Countryman.