Frozen Britain

Publishers note

Frozen Britain is the eagerly awaited sequel to the bestselling Frozen in Time, which caught popular imagination with its evocative portrayal of human hardship in such dreadful winters as 1947, 1963 and 1979. TV weathermen Ian McCaskill and Paul Hudson bring the story fully up-to-date and graphically portray freezing conditions that took Britain by surprise.

Book Review

Cold winters in the UK are the exception rather than the norm, and during the 20 years leading up to 2008/09 they had become virtually extinct. It was common to hear people say that ‘winters weren’t like they used to be’ and to a large degree that was true.  The book ‘Frozen in Time’ published in 2006 picked up on this theme, discussing some of the UK’s severest winters on record, bringing them to life with some incredible stories and anecdotes. Frozen Britain’ picks up where ‘Frozen in Time’ left off, including all of its key content as well as a brand new chapter on the return of severe wintry weather to the UK in the last two years, finishing off with a discussion asking ‘How often will it happen again?’

One of the outstanding features  is the number of great photographs, most of which I’ve not seen anywhere other than in ‘Frozen in Time’ and ‘Frozen Britain’.  In many cases the text compliments them, as they tell the story in their own right. Seeing ice flows on the Thames, trains stuck in snow drifts, snow in central London  and jet engines being used to blast away the snow all show how severely wintry weather can impact us in the UK, and the odd methods we sometimes adopt to try and deal with it. The book also shows how often at the end of a severe wintry spell  in Britain the thaw brings terrible floods, such as in 1947, and that these can be as devastating as the snow and ice which preceded them.

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The book’s first chapter, ‘Double Trouble’ looks at the last two winters which brought bitterly cold weather and widespread snow to most of Britain for prolonged periods of time. I’m not sure whether it was done purposefully or not, but the photographs in this chapter are in colour, whereas the ones from winters further back in time are black and white.  I enjoyed reading this chapter because it helped put some context around how the last two winters compare with the winter of 1978/79 which is the coldest we’ve had so far in my lifetime. Although 1978/79 was slightly colder than 2009/10 it may surprise some people to learn they were comparable, finally putting to bed the suggestion that in this age winters can’t be bad as they used to be!

Frozen Britain then turns to looking at the worst winters in history prior to 1947, then the 1947, 1962/63 and 1978/79 winters are each given their own in depth chapter. One thing common to all these freezing winters from different eras is the amount of disruption they cause, and despite technological advances and politicians saying we’ll be better prepared in future, very little seems to change! So it’s fitting that ‘Frozen Britain’ concludes asking ‘How often will it happen again?’  I don’t think anyone can give a definitive answer to the question, but at least here is some well-informed discussion on the topic.

Summary

The authors Ian McCaskill and Paul Hudson  have done an excellent job with ‘Frozen Britain’, and I’d strongly recommend it to anyone with an interest in cold weather in the UK. One question many will ask is whether to buy a copy of it if they already have ‘Frozen in Time’ on their bookshelf.  The key differences are the new chapter in ‘Frozen Britain’  discussing the last two winters, and the Epitaph which asks the question ‘how often will it happen again?’ As well as these differences, ‘Frozen Britain’ is a paperback, and has a significantly lower recommended retail price than ‘Frozen in Time’ did when it was published.

Buy Frozen Britain

Frozen Britain is available to buy from the TWO Store.

Issued 15/10/2011 © Brian Gaze

Brian Gaze's blog

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