Flood [Paperback]

 

 

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In 1976, Richard Doyle wrote a disaster novel called DELUGE, about London flooding. This was written before the Thames Barrier was built, and such a disaster was after that inconceivable. However, when you read this updated and much more realistic version, you will be left wondering whether the Barrier will be safe enough to stop a massive tidal surge. Not only that, in this story a tanker explodes, hitting oil refineries in Canvey Island , Essex, just east of London, causing a massive burning oil slick to head for the capital. The British Government's people - Home Secretary Venetia Maitland and Royal Navy troubleshooter Roland Raikes do all they can to prevent the disaster from getting worse as the burning flood tide heads at an alarming pace towards London. Richard Doyle has certainly done his research into how such a huge disaster could occur and just who it would affect. The locations featured are as authentic as you could get - the Van Ommeren oil refinery in Essex is a place I used to work next door to and brought back some memories. The descriptions of the fire and flood destroying landmarks is so well told it's unsettling at times, but this is a book you just cannot stop reading. There are no main characters, apart from, perhaps Raikes and Maitland, this story is told as-it-happens in a present tense making you feel you are there, the disaster itself is the main element focused on. There are assorted subplots of people being rescued from the London Underground, the THames Barrier and how it fails, schoolchildren escaping the Millennium Dome and shoppers trapped at Bluewater retail city - and a massive inferno at Canary Wharf tower. Overall, very frightening and hard to fault, and a book that makes compelling reading!

First of Richard Doyle's books I've read. Its cover caught my eye in passing with the London Eye and a wall of fire behind it. I left this novel with a sense of disquiet and a massively improved sense of understanding as to exactly what a flood could do to London. Admittedly it is fiction, but it possessed enough convincing technical 'fact' as to the impending reality to leave me with that lingering sour taste in the mouth.
The main driver behind 'Flood' is the fact that there is no focus on a particular character. This limits the assumed pathos that tends to come with any disaster novel and, curiously, means the results of the flood become the main character. All of which made it extremely interesting.
I find that what tends to happen in this thriller sub-genre is that we follow defined characters as they both react to and deal with the aftermath of the given disaster.
That is limited here.
There are key people we can point to, like the Home Secretary, Venetia, the Barrier chief engineer, Angus, Bluewater's management team headed by Murdoch. There is also Sophie de Salis and her interaction with Harriet and the children Miranda and Chrissie, the head mistress, Pam and Jen-0's master, Ted, to name a few. Yet, we get snapshots of them spaced far apart so any development of a relationship between reader and character is not overly encouraged.
The premise of 'Flood' is of a storm that develops over Canada, moves across the Atlantic, rounds Scotland and plunges down the North Sea. It creates a 'surge' that coincides with High Tide up the Thames to the point that the relevant authorities realise too late it will top the Thames Barrier and flood substantial parts of London. The disaster is compounded by the fact that a laden supertanker gets out of control and several important gas and oil works explode ensuing millions of tonnes of oils and flammable chemicals ride the surge up the river. Add major gas explosions caused by the inferno to this and we end up with the worst case scenario - fire and flood.
So, geography becomes our main character as the story follows the flood up the Thames in a wave of destruction as we see it envelop Canvey Island, Docklands, Bluewater, the Underground, Dartford Bridge, the Dome and many more landmarks. The sheer scale of the devastation is hard to grasp and Doyle floods the novel with facts and science in a Clancy-esque manner. You end the novel with a better knowledge of Thames tidal flow, flood geography and disaster prevention methods than when you commenced. What is interesting is that the novel simply ends with the limits of the destruction. Several loose ends abound and we are presented with Britain's capital city in ruins and no indication of the actions in the aftermath other than an almost footnote about hope of light in a world gone dark.
So, not similar to other disaster novels I have read either in characterisation or presentation or plot. However, it ensures the reader keeps turning the pages in a fascinated horror of what unfolds and leaves that sense of disquiet at the end.

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