A Review By Keith Smith

The story of Britain’s colourful maritime past seen through the changing fortunes of the Cornish port of Falmouth. Within the space of few years, during the 1560s and 1570s, a maritime revolution took place in England that would contribute more than anything to the transformation of the country from a small rebel state on the fringes of Europe into a world power. Until then, it was said, there was only one Englishman capable of sailing across the Atlantic.

Yet within ten years an English ship with an English crew was circumnavigating the world. At the same time in Cornwall, in the Fal estuary, just a single building — a lime kiln — existed where the port of Falmouth would emerge. Yet by the end of the eighteenth century, Falmouth would be one of the busiest harbours in the world.

‘The Levelling Sea’ uses the story of Falmouth’s spectacular rise and fall to explore wider questions about the sea and its place in history and imagination. Drawing on his own deep connection with Cornwall, award-winning author Philip Marsden writes unforgettably about the power of the sea and its ability to produce greed on a piratical scale, dizzying corruption, and grand and tragic aspirations.

I loved this little book from the moment I delighted in the cover. What a joy to own and handle. And if you like Cornwall as much as I do ( and who could not?) then this book will remind you why. Since you are never more than ten minutes from the sea, the sea plays a dominant role in Cornwall’s history, and that history we learn about through Marsden’s careful researches, travels and a telling which never fails to intrigue, amaze and uplift. His depiction of Falmouth’s rise and fall and rise is tied in to his deep connection with the town and its estuary and his own hankering for the sea. If you don’t know your halyards from your foremasts, you soon will. Highly recommended….