For five years, Simon Winchester criss-crossed the vast expanses of the Pacific Ocean and the 56 countries that lie around and within it. The result is this encyclopaedic study which encompasses visits to the jungles of Sarawak and the satellite-factories of Los Angeles; drinking passion-fruit juice with the King of Tonga and gold-flavoured tea with the new rich of Tokyo. Each chapter forms an essay which examines a significant aspect of the Pacific, an area of the world that is only now emerging fully as a challenge to the dominance of the Atlantic nations.