The Somerset Tsunami: 'The Queen of Historical Fiction at her finest.' Guardian: 1

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Rose’s illustrated talk was in the form of a journey up the Bristol Channel and Severn Estuary and she described the devastation caused by the tide at various places en route. The Somerset Levels and Gwent Levels were also particularly badly affected and Rose suggested that wet weather beforehand had meant that the tidal water met little resistance as it travelled over already saturated ground. She explained that while it seemed that the 1607 flood was the greatest in terms of the height that the waters reached, there have subsequently been other tidal flooding events, notably in 1703 and, more recently, in 1981 when the embankment of the M5 motorway acted as a second sea defence when the wall at Burnham had been breached. a b c BBC staff (24 September 2014). "The great flood of 1607: could it happen again?". BBC Somerset . Retrieved 20 February 2008.

a b 1607 Bristol Channel Floods: 400-year Retrospective Risk Management Solutions Report (PDF), Risk Management Solutions, Newark CA, USA, 2007

The focus of researchers looking into the Great Bristol Channel Flood of 1607 have focused on the accounts written at the time, piecing together the histories of the event that continued to be written in the weeks, months and years afterwards. Experts believe severe flooding on 30 January 1607 in south west England and south Wales was caused by a tsunami - and not a storm surge or high tides. The deposition of layers of sand over wide areas at the time, discovered in boreholes in the ground from north Devon to Gloucestershire to the Gower; The tide heights, probable weather, extent and depth of flooding, and coastal flooding elsewhere in the UK on the same day all point towards a storm surge. Bryant, Edward; Haslett, Simon (2002). "Was the AD 1607 Coastal Flooding Event in the Severn Estuary and Bristol Channel (UK) Due to a Tsunami". Archaeology in the Severn Estuary (13): 163–167. ISSN 1354-7089.

BBC staff (4 April 2005). "Tsunami theory of flood disaster". BBC News Online . Retrieved 13 November 2010. Obviously Bristol is unrecognisable from the small town of just 10,000 or so people who lived pretty much entirely within the city walls that stretched from modern day Redcliffe Way to the bottom of Broad Street. Dr Roger Musson, head of seismic hazards at the British Geological Survey, confirms the theory is feasible, saying there are other examples of earthquakes in the area caused by an ancient fault off south-west Ireland - but adds that he believes a storm surge was more likely the cause.An earlier 2002 research paper, following investigations by Professor Simon Haslett of Bath Spa University and Australian geologist Ted Bryant of the University of Wollongong, suggested that the flooding may have been caused by a tsunami, after the authors had read some eyewitness accounts in the historical reports which described the flood. [9] [10] [11] The British Geological Survey has suggested that, as there is no evidence of a landslide off the continental shelf, a tsunami would most likely have been caused by an earthquake on a known unstable fault off the coast of southwest Ireland, causing the vertical displacement of the sea floor. [12] One contemporary report describes an earth tremor on the morning of the flood; [13] however, other sources date this earthquake to a few months after the event. [14] Research into the devastating 1607 flood that affected Burnham-On-Sea and the Bristol Channel in January 1607 has been the subject of a study between Dr Simon Haslett, Head of Geography at Bath Spa University College, author of Coastal Systems and Dr Ted Bryant, School of Geosciences at the University of Wollongong, Australia, and author of Tsunami: the Underrated Hazard. Tsunami height– In the open sea area between north Devon and Pembrokeshire, the wave was just under 4m (13ft) high, but as it entered the constricting funnel-shaped Bristol Channel and Severn Estuary, the wave increased in height to 5m (16ft) along the Glamorgan coast, 5.5m (18ft) along the Somerset coast, and over 7.5m (25ft) high, by the time it reached the Monmouthshire coast. This increase in wave height due to the funnel-shape of the estuary is exactly the same as the process that creates the famous Severn Bore. The idea that the 1607 flood was due to a tsunami was first put forward by Haslett and Bryant in a scientific paper published in 2002 in the journal Archaeology in the Severn Estuary. Huge area affected by 1607 tsunami

Every child has a right to the joy that comes from books, including children with severe and profound learning difficulties However, the chances of it happening again are said to be small, with the probability that such an event would take place on average only every 500 - 1,000 years.UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth . Retrieved 11 June 2022. By contrast, something massive is needed to create waves with such a great height in the case of a mega-tsunami. Unlike usual tsunamis, mega-tsunamis are caused by giant landslides and other impact events such as volcanic eruptions or huge asteroids crashing into the sea. These phenomena rapidly displace large volumes of water, as energy from falling debris or expansion is transferred to the water." What Sir David King says

Scouring my bookshelves for more recent examples of flood myths, I came across three books I’ve read and loved. In The Children of Green Knowe by Lucy M Boston, Tolly goes to stay at his great-grandparents' strange, magical house, which he can only reach by boat across the floods surrounding it. The water isolates him from the rest of the world; by keeping him at the house, it intensifies his experiences there. In turn, the house offers him sanctuary against the danger the floods pose. North of Bristol, going up the Severn Estuary, the water travelled hard and fast inland by as much as six miles. Villages were swept away on the Somerset coast and in Bristol, the water surged up the Avon Gorge and flooded the city centre.In 1823, Rev Samuel Seyer wrote what was, at that stage, the most detailed history of Bristol yet, and he put the event as happening on January 20, albeit later admits other sources he’d seen put it on January 27. The flood was commemorated in a contemporary pamphlet entitled God's warning to the people of England by the great overflowing of the waters or floods. [23] The plot is very energetic and you really get pulled in when the action starts. I also found that Emma Caroll described the tsunami as a person, a big roaring mass of water. All in all, I found the book entertaining in most parts (apart from the start) and very enjoyable.