“Our house is hardly 200 yards from the sand hills and yet we only had a few minutes warning... My husband and I and my niece Rita threw on our coats and made a dash for the sand hills, with Mr. Cator and our three dogs. As we went I could see the sea pouring over the marshes and racing us, but in the end we got to the hills in time."

An account of escape from the floods of 1938 in Horsey.

Norfolk has been no stranger to floods and inundations by the sea down the centuries. Such constant dangers have helped form both the character of the land and its people. Yet the sea is a fickle as well as a cruel mistress, for she provides families with a harvest to feed generations and yet can turn angrily upon them with storm and flood, claiming her toll in lives along the coast.

And not only the sea. In low-lying East Anglia heavy rainstorms quickly fill the rivers and waterways, bringing their waters brimming to the banks and eventually cascading across the flat farmland and into the towns, villages, and the city of Norwich, leaving death and destruction in their wake.

The three floods covered in this book occurred in 1912, 1938 and 1953, and are some of the most severe to be suffered by the county, not just in the twentieth century but for hundreds of years before.

In each instance the tragic loss of life was accompanied by the destruction of houses, farms, roads and bridges, many simply disappearing before the unstoppable surge of water.

Here, illustrated with almost 250 dramatic photographs, many of them never before published, the author traces the story of each of these catastrophes, linking a chronical of actual events with personal stories told by those who were there when the flood waters came.

For the first time here is a full and illustrated history of the greatest floods ever experienced in Norfolk.

Neil Storey is a born and bred Norfolk man. A graduate of the University of East Anglia and one of the foremost historians of the county specialising in social and military history themes, he has published over 30 books and countless articles for magazines and journals. Undoubtedly a man blessed with a ready wit and ebullient character he is a familiar voice on BBC local radio; he has also acted as a consultant and featured on a number of television documentaries and dramas. Neil is in constant demand by both academic and social audiences for his lectures, talks and legendary after dinner speeches.

Imprint: Halsgrove. ISBN 978 0 85704 159 3, hardback, 297x210mm, 160 pages. Published June 2012.