Stranded at Schiphol airport, Ben Coates called up a friendly Dutch girl he'd
met some months earlier. He stayed for dinner. Actually, he stayed for good.
In the first book to consider the hidden heart and history of the Netherlands
from a modern perspective, the author explores the length and breadth of his
adopted homeland and discovers why one of the world's smallest countries is also
so significant and so fascinating. It is a self-made country, the Dutch national
character shaped by the ongoing battle to keep the water out from the love of
dairy and beer to the attitude to nature and the famous