This is indeed an almost boundless book. A 1075 page tome it looks forbidding even if the title draws the reader in. But the weight of pages is offset by the lightness of touch. This Human History of the Oceans takes the reader all the way from the Pacific at the dawn of mankind’s movement over the seas almost to today. It does so in a multitude – 50 – of relatively brief chapters which makes it easy to digest. Indeed the reader can pick and choose areas of an era of particular interest rather than read from beginning to end.