For centuries, men and women dreamed of a direct link between England and the Continent. Drew Fetherston's epic chronicle of the Channel Tunnel is the story of these dreamers and of the men and women who finally made the dream a reality. Conceived by hard-headed businessmen and intended to make money, the tunnel project became a fiscal disaster. Fetherston's book is a fascinating business narrative of high risk and high finance, of culture clashes and reckless blunders.

But the tunnel was also a spectacular engineering feat, and Fetherston - whose own background spans the world of business reporting and science writing - brings to vivid life the accomplishments of those who designed the tunnel and drove it beneath the Channel's stormy waters.

We get to know not only an array of engineers and financiers, tunnelers and scientists, politicians and businessmen, but the English Channel itself: its shallows and unique geology, its layers of chalk and clay, and its spectacular history.