Orange Sky, Rising Water: The Remarkable Past and Uncertain Future of the Netherlands

From unpromising marshy beginnings, the Netherlands grew into a maritime, cultural, economic, scientific, agricultural and footballing superpower. How did it get there?

Journalist Nicholas Walton paints a vivid portrait of one of the world’s most remarkable countries. Drawing on interviews, his own life in the Netherlands, Dutch history and popular culture, he tells a story of floods and riots, engineering brilliance and wartime treachery. Through ten walks around towns and cities, fields and beaches, he reveals how the Dutch built a system that organized politics and tamed the water. But now, the Netherlands faces an unpredictable future as extreme weather threatens the flat landscape. Meanwhile, farmers are protesting on the streets and voters are voicing discontent over everything from immigration and inequality to a dysfunctional housing market.

Orange Sky, Rising Water asks whether the extraordinary Dutch success story can continue--or will the country, its people and its way of life be swept away?

Nicholas Walton is a journalist and hiker based in Genoa. He has worked as a BBC correspondent in Sarajevo, Warsaw and Moscow, and for think tanks including the European Council on Foreign Relations and the World Resources Institute. His previous books also available from Oxford University Press are Singapore, Singapura and Genoa, ’La Superba’.