The Wrong Kind of Snow: How the Weather Made Britain by Robert Penn

by Antony Woodward

The British are, as a general rule, obsessed with the weather, an unsurprising fact given the unpredictability of English weather systems and the huge impact they have played on national history. The defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 was as much a result of a devastating storm as the strength of British forces, and the steamy summer of 1858 caused the Great Stink of London, resulting in the construction of the city’s sewage system. From the massive floods of 1930 to the Great Freeze of 1963, each of the 365 entries in this intriguing compendium illustrates an important day in the weird and wonderful history of British weather.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction

Paperback

First published October 1, 2007

Reviews

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun to dip into for a few minutes each day.

[Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a perfect book but certainly an entertaining one. Weather reports and historical news separated into 365 pages, one for each day of the year. There's some padding in the form of weather-related snippets from literature and quotations, but the brunt of the text focuses on extremes and sometimes disasters. The historical accounts I found particularly fascinating, although there seems to be a little too much of a focus on cricket for my liking. Generally filled with facts, well laid out and bite-size to boot, this is a hard book to knock too much.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unusual set up. Each day of the year has a page with weather history and facts. If you read the book through its bit repetitive and you keep wanting all the hail stories together. It also needs an index so you can find the Wordsworth bit, etc. However the facts themselves are interesting.

[Tansy Hepton · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best page a day book. Keep it by your bed (or, even better, in the bathroom) and enjoy a bit of history and a lot of weather.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

The perfect book for us weather obsessed British with stories, anecdotes and general tit-bits of information that vary from the humorous and light-hearted to the more serious and heart-rendering tales. Each day of the year not only has it's own tales to tell but the authors have also researched back through the weather records to give a quick run down of what to expect on each day (although as they point out this is not to be used as a forecast tool in anyway...). A fascinating collection, well worth reading on a cold wet UK summer's day.

[Stephen Dawson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I deliberately spread the reading of this over a whole year, dipping into it and reading accounts of events on each day of the year that have been influenced by the British weather. Inevitably there is a degree of repetition at times, particularly as regards shipwrecks, but there is a lot of interesting stuff here for the weather enthusiast.

[David Medcalf · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another book to dip into - occasionally. It's a mixture of trivia and more interesting detail. Not a book to sit down and read from cover to cover, but entertaining when reading about the current date. It may take me several years to finish!

[Sally · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will continue the tradition of my countrymen in examining the weather whenever possible and going out dressed to expect as many different weather conditions as my climate may throw at me at any one day.

Yes, that's me in the shorts, sandals, overcoat and hat.

[Lorna Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good to dip in.

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book for dipping into.