The compelling story of how the first transatlantic cable was laid --the people who dared, the people who lost, and the people who profited. It tells of the dramatic attempts to cross the Atlan-tic during the 1850s and 1860s, from the first failed attempts to the project that finally succeeded. An inconceivably audacious attempt to overcome the forces of nature in the name of human progress and technology, the laying of the cable was to change forever our means of communication. The speed with which information could now be transmitted was unprecedented and revolutionized the face of news and the global economy.

Gillian Cookson is an acknowledged expert on the transatlantic telegraph cable.