Troubled Waters

Even though this subject is still widely discussed (and recently the subject of a BBC and Netflix documentary), a book about the conflict has never been written. And it was a real thriller, thick with threats and drama, as WikiLeaks reveals. The conflict has a long historical background: the term ''cod war'' was coined by a British journalist in early September 1958, but the British had been fishing in Icelandic waters for at least 500 years. In the freezing waters between these two nations, four confrontations took place between Great Britain, a world superpower, and Iceland, a microstate of just a few hundred thousand people. Each time, Iceland won. And it all happened because of cod — and the right to fish it.

The reach of the dispute is extraordinary: all Western European states and the Warsaw Pact opposed Iceland''s unilateral extension of its coastal waters to 50 miles, but African states declared support for Iceland''s extension after a meeting in 1971 where the Icelandic prime minister argued that the Icelandic cause was a part of a broader battle against colonialism and imperialism.

Nathen Morley has interviewed key figures in the dispute, including Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary at the time. He has analysed the cables, NATO documents, contemporary reports and interviews. He also has a personal connection to the story - his father was a fisherman during Cod War, and it ultimately shaped his family''s history. Thousands of British fishermen lost their livelihoods.