The Wrong Kind of Snow: How the Weather Made Britain - Softcover

Endlessly fascinating... It is well researched and written with flair and a feel for the drama of the moment - the perfect book for ensuring you have something to say during that awkward moment at the water cooler. * Financial Times * This book is jam-packed with grand themes ... first-rate and really well-researched ... a fascinating book, based on a very clever idea and very intelligently done. * Daily Mail * The perfect stocking-filler * Independent * 'Brilliant idea' * Daily Mail * Bags of charm * The Sunday Times * Well written and funny . . . a book you can give to almost anyone * Elle * 'A meteorological feast for every day of the year' * Good Book Guide * 'Wonderful . . . full of fascination and amusement' * Alan Titchmarsh, The Alan Titchmarsh Show * ' ***** Smart and well-researched' * Time Out * 'This year's Eats, Shoots and Leaves' * Guardian *

It is a fact universally acknowledged that the British are obsessed with the weather. This is not surprising as no country in the world has such unpredictable weather, with such power to rule people's lives. THE WRONG KIND OF SNOW is the complete daily companion to this national phenomenon. From the Spanish Armada to the invention of the windscreen wiper, each of the 365 entries beautifully illustrates a day in the weird and wonderful history of the British and their weather. 31 January: The Big Freeze of 1963 brings the FA Cup competition to a halt: every football pitch in Britain is frozen: the third round takes 66 days to complete: the Pools Panel is formed as a result. 9 February: British Rail blames the 'Wrong Kind of Snow'. It was a journalist's phrase, but on this day in 1991 it stuck to the beleagured BR like flesh to ice. 15 July: The exceptionally hot and steamy summer of 1858 caused the Great Stink of London, resulting in the building of London's sewage system, still in use today. On the same day in 1930, rainfall in Yorkshire was so heavy that the Whitby lifeboat makes a rescue two miles inland. 10 September: A violent storm rather than British sea power defeats the Spanish Armada in 1588. Had the weather held and the fleet reached home, it would have been hailed as a Spanish triumph. Four centuries later, bad light and rain stop play at the Oval . . . And much much more.