The Silent Deep

The gripping, acclaimed history of the British submarine service, and of the men and women who hold "the franchise of the deep"In the 114 years since its birth, the Royal Navy Submarine Service has stretched from the North Pole to the South Atlantic, from the Far East to the Barents Sea. The United Kingdom is girdled with the infrastructure required to support this vast enterprise; and the submarines of its Trident system form the sole basis of the UK's position as the world's reluctant nuclear power. Yet it remains shrouded in secrecy. Written with privileged access to documents and personnel, The Silent Deep is the first authoritative history of the British submarine service since the end of the Second World War.

Short-listed for Parliamentary Book Awards: Best Non-Fiction by a Parliamentarian 2016

“"A tour de force, a valuable resource for naval historians and future generations to wonder at. And I can't help hoping that our current leaders will make themselves aware of some vitally significant issues that it raises." -- Spectator”

A tour de force, a valuable resource for naval historians and future generations to wonder at. And I can't help hoping that our current leaders will make themselves aware of some vitally significant issues that it raises. -- Admiral Lord West Spectator
The lay reader cannot fail to be absorbed by its dramatic tales of cat-and-mouse skirmishes with Soviet hunter-killer submarines, embarrassing spy scandals and lucid accounts of the Falklands War - all enlivened with first-hand testimony from the submariners themselves. -- Richard Blackmore Independent

Peter Hennessy (Author)Peter Hennessy, one of Britain's best-known historians, is Attlee Professor of History at Queen Mary, University of London. He is the author of the classic 'post-war trilogy' Never Again- Britain 1945-51 (winner of the NCR and Duff Cooper Prizes), Having it So Good- Britain in the Fifties (winner of the Orwell Prize) and Winds of Change- Britain in the Early Sixties, the bestselling The Prime Minister and The Secret State- Preparing For The Worst 1945-2010. He was made an independent crossbench life peer in 2010.James Jinks (Author)James Jinks completed his PhD under Peter Hennessy at Queen Mary. His first book was 50 Years of the Polaris Sales Agreement, commissioned by Her Majesty's Government to mark 50 years of Polaris. He is now at work on A Very British Bomb, a history of the British nuclear deterrent.

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