Longlisted for the National Book Award 2024

‘Passionate and absorbing’
SUNDAY TIMES

‘I learned more about the Moon by reading this book than after a lifetime of study’
CHRIS HADFIELD, author of An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth

‘Superb: as much a feat of imagination as it is a work of globe-trotting scholarship’
TELEGRAPH

‘Boyle’s writing shines, shifting through time and space, science and sentiment; a luminous read’
REBECCA WRAGG SYKES, author of Kindred

‘You will never look at the Moon the same way again . . . fascinating’
NEW STATESMAN

‘A riveting feat of science writing’
ED YONG, author of An Immense World

‘Engrossing’
INDEPENDENT

Every living being throughout history, across time and geography, has gazed up at the same moon.

From the first prehistoric life that crawled onto land guided by the power of the tides, to the division of time into months and seasons for the first humans, the moon has driven the expansion and development of our world.

It has inspired scientific discovery and culture from the ancient astronomers to the scientific revolution of Copernicus and Galileo, from the 1969 Apollo landings to writers and artists, and stirred an inexhaustible desire to know where we come from and how we got here.

And as astronauts around the world prepare to return to the Moon – opening up new frontiers of discovery, profit and politics – Our Moon tells the dazzling story of how the Moon has shaped life as we know it, fuelled dramatic change across the globe and could be the key to humanity’s future.

‘In Helen Czerski’s hands, the mechanical becomes magical. An instant classic.’
Tristan Gooley, author of How to Read Water

‘Blue Machine is quite simply one of the best books I have ever read.’
Dr George McGavin, zoologist, entomologist and broadcaster

‘A fascinating dive into the essential engine that drives our world. Czerski brings the oceans alive with compelling stories that masterfully navigate this most complex system.’
Gaia Vince, science journalist, broadcaster and author of Nomad Century

All of the Earth’s ocean, from the equator to the poles, is a single engine powered by sunlight – a blue machine.

Earth is home to a huge story that is rarely told – that of our ocean. Not the fish or the dolphins, but the massive ocean engine itself: what it does, why it works, and the many ways it has influenced animals, weather and human history & culture.

In a book that will recalibrate our view of this defining feature of our planet, physicist Helen Czerski dives deep to illuminate the murky depths of the ocean engine, examining the messengers, passengers and voyagers that live in it, travel over it, and survive because of it. From the ancient Polynesians who navigated the Pacific by reading the waves to permanent residents of the deep such as the Greenland shark that can live for hundreds of years, she explains the vast currents, invisible ocean walls and underwater waterfalls that all have their place in the ocean’s complex, interlinked system.

Timely, elegant and passionately argued, Blue Machine presents a fresh perspective on what it means to be a citizen of an ocean planet. The understanding it offers is crucial to our future. Drawing on years of experience at the forefront of marine science, Helen Czerski captures the magnitude and subtlety of Earth’s defining feature, showing us the thrilling extent to which we are at the mercy of this great engine.

‘Passionate and absorbing’
SUNDAY TIMES

‘I learned more about the Moon by reading this book than after a lifetime of study’
CHRIS HADFIELD, author of An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth

‘Superb: as much a feat of imagination as it is a work of globe-trotting scholarship’
TELEGRAPH

‘Boyle’s writing shines, shifting through time and space, science and sentiment; a luminous read’
REBECCA WRAGG SYKES, author of Kindred

‘You will never look at the Moon the same way again . . . fascinating’
NEW STATESMAN

‘A riveting feat of science writing’
ED YONG, author of An Immense World

‘Engrossing’
INDEPENDENT

Every living being throughout history, across time and geography, has gazed up at the same moon.

From the first prehistoric life that crawled onto land guided by the power of the tides, to the division of time into months and seasons for the first humans, the moon has driven the expansion and development of our world.

It has inspired scientific discovery and culture from the ancient astronomers to the scientific revolution of Copernicus and Galileo, from the 1969 Apollo landings to writers and artists, and stirred an inexhaustible desire to know where we come from and how we got here.

And as astronauts around the world prepare to return to the Moon – opening up new frontiers of discovery, profit and politics – Our Moon tells the dazzling story of how the Moon has shaped life as we know it, fuelled dramatic change across the globe and could be the key to humanity’s future.

Earth is home to a huge story that is rarely told – that of our ocean. Not the fish or the dolphins, but the massive ocean engine itself: what it does, why it works, and the many ways it has influenced animals, weather and human history & culture.

In a book that will recalibrate our view of this defining feature of our planet, physicist Helen Czerski dives deep to illuminate the murky depths of the ocean engine, examining the messengers, passengers and voyagers that live in it, travel over it, and survive because of it. From the ancient Polynesians who navigated the Pacific by reading the waves to permanent residents of the deep such as the Greenland shark that can live for hundreds of years, she explains the vast currents, invisible ocean walls and underwater waterfalls that all have their place in the ocean’s complex, interlinked system.

Timely, elegant and passionately argued, Blue Machine presents a fresh perspective on what it means to be a citizen of an ocean planet. The understanding it offers is crucial to our future. Drawing on years of experience at the forefront of marine science, Helen Czerski captures the magnitude and subtlety of Earth’s defining feature, showing us the thrilling extent to which we are at the mercy of this great engine.