SOMERSET resident Michael Brown has released a book, titled as ‘The Flood - Surviving the Deluge, life on the Somerset Levels’. This well-written series of highlights of Michael’s diary are very real, the account is funny, observant, honest and unpredictable.

The Flood by Michael Brown is a book about Michael and his time in Somerset who was living with his wife in Somerset Levels when the floods in 2014 hit the region.

His house was underwater for several weeks, he decided to stay put and his experience alongside his local community was unexpected.

The ensuing chain of events involved first fighting the water, pumping, and sweeping and panicking followed by a strange sense of acceptance of the inevitable defeat, and respect for natures power.

The Flood by Michael Brown who was living with his wife Utta on the Somerset Levels when the floods in 2014 hit the region.

His house was underwater for several weeks, he decided to stay put and his experience alongside his local community was unexpected.

The ensuing chain of events involved first fighting the water, pumping, and sweeping and panicking  followed by a strange sense of acceptance of the inevitable defeat, and respect for natures power. There came an unexpected wealth of emotions as the waters – and the locals – had to settle into a strange and ultimately rewarding state of marooned calm.
This well-written series of highlights of Michael’s diary are very real: the account is funny, observant, honest and unpredictable.

This well-written series of highlights of Michael’s diary are very real: the account is funny, observant, honest and unpredictable. 

Excerpt from the book: "We keep going, brushing and sweeping for the next two hours. But by 10am the water has climbed to the level of the kitchen floor, spreading unstoppable into the rest of the house. Both exhausted, we meet for a conference. ‘What do you think, shall we turn them off?’ It’s a terrible decision to make, to throw in the towel. To surrender.

"But there’s some inexorable momentum about this flood, it’s still coming up and you sense there’s a lot more to come. In effect by pumping, we’re taking on the whole flooded moor. We haven’t a chance. It’s like a death sentence. I go out and one by one very reluctantly switch off all seven pumps."

Michael Brown has lived in Somerset for fifty years where he has made a living out of the local eels: fishing them, smoking them and eventually setting up Brown & Forrest, a successful smokery and restaurant.