Between the Waves

‘[Tom McTague] has been writing some of the best journalism about the crisis of British politics’ David Runciman

This is the underground history of Britain’s fractious relationship with Europe – as it’s never been told before.

In a story of vaulting ambition and underhand politics, of nation, identity and belief, acclaimed journalist Tom McTague chronicles the battle of ideas, events and personalities that first took the country into the European Union in 1973, only to take it back out again in an explosive referendum a little over forty years later.

Building on meticulous research, unpublished sources and exclusive interviews, Between the Waves journeys back to the roots of ideological conflict that formed between major political figures in the fight for the future of Europe – Charles de Gaulle, Harold Macmillan, Jean Monnet, Enoch Powell and Margaret Thatcher. McTague tracks the legacy of these political giants to show how the ideas of a rag-tag group of rebels – including the Eurosceptic Bruges group, billionaire James Goldsmith and influential strategist Dominic Cummings – went from the brink of obscurity to landmark victory in a little over a generation.

Between the Waves is a compulsive and enlightening portrait of one of the defining political stories of our time.