The acclaimed and prize-winning author has been shortlisted for the Nero award with this, his non-fiction title looking at the lives impacted by the refugees crossing the Channel in small boats.

It's an extraordinary book. So challenging, thought-provoking but also inspiring. He highlights the good in people, the kindnesses and sacrifices and suggests how we are being sold a lie, generating fear and suspicion.

This book arose from a piece of journalism. Horatio Clare was commissioned by the Financial Times to meet the people in Dover and find out how they were really feeling about the influx of small boats. 

He found that the situation was far from that usually presented by the media. He met the volunteers helping the thousands of refugees. He spoke to the lifeboat crews and to those instructed in housing the refugees.

Instead of anger and outrage, he found kindness, compassion and empathy. It led him to investigate further and in Calais, France, he interviewed the women looking after people in the 'Jungle' there.

It is a beautifully written book, being very easy to read, though poignant and disturbing, inspiring and uplifting.

It's also shocking to learn of some of the details which are commonly overlooked. For example, the private companies earning huge sums from the government to accommodate and process the refugees, and who do so ineffectively. And how the number of people crossing in the small boats is a tiny percentage of the total immigration figure accepted each year.

Of course this situation is complex but the book gives a valuable and important perspective that is largely overlooked. And the author urges us to look again at Britain and the British people for the good that we can do, and all that we stand for. I urge you to read it.