<<The>> Channel the remarkable men and women who made it the most fascinating waterway in the world

A bulwark against invasion, a conduit for exchange and a challenge to be conquered, the English Channel has always been many things to many people. Today it's the busiest shipping lane in the world and hosts more than 30 million passenger crossings every year but this sliver of choppy brine, just 21 miles wide at its narrowest point, represents much more than a conductor of goods and people. Criss-crossing the Channel - not to mention regularly throwing himself into it for a bracing swim - Charlie Connelly collects its stories and brings them vividly to life, from tailing Oscar Wilde's shadow through the dark streets of Dieppe to unearthing Britain's first beauty pageant at the end of Folkestone pier (it was won by a bloke called Wally). We learn that Louis Bleriot was actually a terrible pilot, the tragic fate of the first successful Channel swimmer, and that if a man with a buttered head and pigs' bladders attached to his trousers hadn't fought off an attack by dogfish we might never have had a Channel Tunnel. Here is a cast of extraordinary characters - geniuses, cheats, dreamers, charlatans, visionaries, eccentrics and at least one pair of naked, cuddling balloonists - whose stories are all united by the English Channel to ensure the sea that makes us an island will never be the same again. A bulwark against invasion, a conduit for exchange and a challenge to be conquered, the English Channel has always been many things to many people. Today it's the busiest shipping lane in the world and hosts more than 30 million passenger crossings every year but this sliver of choppy brine, just 21 miles wide at its narrowest point, represents much more than a conductor of goods and people. Criss-crossing the Channel - not to mention regularly throwing himself into it for a bracing swim - Charlie Connelly collects its stories and brings them vividly to life, from tailing Oscar Wilde's shadow through the dark streets of Dieppe to unearthing Britain's first beauty pageant at the end of Folkestone pier (it was won by a bloke called Wally). We uncover the tragic fate of the first successful Channel swimmer. We learn that Louis Bleriot was actually a terrible pilot. And we discover how - if a man with a buttered head and pigs' bladders attached to his trousers hadn't fought off an attack by dogfish - we might never have had a Channel Tunnel. Here is a cast of extraordinary characters - geniuses, cheats, dreamers, charlatans, visionaries, eccentrics and at least one pair of naked, cuddling balloonists - whose stories are all united by the English Channel to ensure the sea that makes us an island will never be the same again If Ever There's A Patch Of Sea That's Taken For Granted It's The English Channel. But Far From A Featureless Expanse Of Water It Is A Submerged Landscape Of Shifting Sandbanks, Of Tides And Eddies, Cables And Tunnels, Shoals Of Fish And Plant Life, And Countless Shipwrecks. Also Out There Are Centuries Of History: Invasion, Exploration, Tragedy, Disaster And Triumph. From The Romans To The Normandy Landings Via The Armada The Channel Has Been The Site Of Some Of The World's Most Famous And Significant Military And Political Encounters. But Most Of All When Charlie Connelly Looks Out From His Home On The Shore In Kent He Sees Stories. The English Channel Is - And Has Been Since It Was First Formed Some 10,000 Years Ago - About Those Who Live By And In It And Those Who Work And Play In, On And Under It. The Channel Has Also Helped Define Britain As A Nation. It's Been A Bulwark, An Impenetrable Barrier That Helps Guard Us Against Mass Invasion And Keeps Us Separate From The Rest Of The World. Here Is A Timely Account Of A Fascinating Year Exploring And Experiencing The English Channel In Order To Assert Its Importance To England's History, Geography And Society. A voyage through the culture, people and history of the defining piece of water known as the English Channel.