Mr Coates is such a good writer that right from the opening sentence he has you hooked. As is usually the case it takes an "outsider" (Coates is English) to make the most perceptive observations on a society. Something of a polymath Mr Coates interests and education qualify him to speak of all aspects of Dutch culture, social, historical, religious and artistic with knowledge and insight, highlighting the fact that for a brief period in the 17th Century this strange, "reclaimed" land was a world power. For anyone interested in something other than the "English" world view, this ticks all the boxes.