The Mediterranean

A whole inland sea, several civilisations, and an alarming quantity of olive oil – in one reasonably portable volume.

The Mediterranean (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1971) by Richard Carrington is the story of that large blue puddle in the middle of the map where history kept happening: Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Crusaders, pirates, tourists – everybody gets a turn. Carrington treats the Mediterranean less like “some water between countries” and more like the main character in a very long, very complicated family saga.

This is the sea that:

• Helped invent civilisation, commerce and the package holiday.

• Watched empires rise, fall and leave behind nothing but ruins and confusing museum labels.

• Managed to be simultaneously a trade route, a battlefield and a place where retired people go to discuss property prices.

Carrington does the full tour: geology, climate, fish, ships, ports, gods, gods rebranded as other gods, then saints, then resort names. He wanders through ancient myths, classical fleets, Arab traders, Venetian merchants, Nelsonian naval drama and modern geopolitics with the calm air of a man who has read the logbooks and come back to tell you that yes, everyone really did fight over this much, for this long.

It’s part history, part travelogue-in-absentia, part reminder that pretty blue water can conceal truly epic levels of mutual irritation.

This copy comes to you courtesy of Crappy Old Books, in confidently graded Condition: Very Good, which in our scrupulously unscientific taxonomy means:

• The dust jacket (if present) shows only the lightest hints of shelfwear – more “grazed by books it looked down on” than “taken to the beach.”

• The boards are clean and solid, standing firm like some respectable stone harbour that’s seen a few storms and no longer bothers to comment.

• The pages are bright, tight and only gently toned – think “early-evening Mediterranean light” rather than “left in a taverna.”

• Minor, almost apologetic signs of handling may be present: a faint rub here, a nearly imaginary corner bump there – all well within the Very Good and frankly rather smug about it bracket.

ISBN: 0297004433, for those who enjoy cataloguing maritime history with precision.

Recommended if:

• Your knowledge of the Mediterranean currently consists of “sun, sea, something about the Romans.”

• You want to know why so many people spent so many centuries arguing over ports, capes and narrow straits that now serve mainly as backdrops for yacht adverts.

• You like your history broad, salty and studded with enough anecdote to keep you awake between the battles and trade statistics.

The Mediterranean: a guided cruise through several thousand years of ships, shores, gods, guns, empires and package tours – now in Very Good used condition, ready to take up dignified residence on your shelf and remind you that beneath every sunset photo-op there is almost certainly a long, bloody footnote.

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