Blue-Water Empire

Robert Holland traces the remarkable experience of British mastery in the Mediterranean from the Battle of the Nile to El Alamein and the end of empire, exploring the unique and often explosive relationships that shaped the region's modern history. For nearly two hundred years the Mediterranean lay at the heart of British power overseas - what Winston Churchill called 'Britain's first battlefield'. Here many thousands of Britons spent their lives, their graves now scattered from Gibraltar to Corfu, from Malta to Cyprus. British mastery of the seaways and surrounding shores, symbolized by the possession of fortress colonies, attracted enemies and rivals but became part of the enduring fabric of many Mediterranean societies. Robert Holland's sweeping new book tells the story of an extraordinary experience combining the military imposition of British rule with a constant enthusiasm for Mediterranean life enduring today, and which has left many legacies in administration, culture, language, law and architecture. From Nelson's great victories against the French to El Alamein and the Malta convoys of the Second World War, the Mediterranean shaped Britain's own fate as much as Britain shaped the future of the Mediterranean. Blue-Water Empire evokes the conflicts and frequent disillusionment between the British and local societies caught up in often dramatic events, but also their mutual intimacy, hopefulness and resilience under pressure. Above all, it charts the British experience of the Mediterranean, and the Mediterranean experience of the British, in the age of empire.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.