Stephen Halliday is a specialist in industrial history and the author of a number of books, including Water: A Turbulent History, Amazing and Extraordinary London Underground Facts and The Great Stink: Sir Joseph Bazalgette and the Cleansing of the Victorian Metropolis. He regularly lectures at Cambridge University and presented with Michael Buerk the Channel 5 programme `What the Victorians Did for Us'. Sir Peter Bazalgette is the great-great-grandson of Victorian civil engineer Sir Joseph Bazalgette and the former head of both ITV and the Arts Council of England.
'Written by historian and broadcaster Stephen Halliday, it achieves the unlikely feat of engaging readers for more than 250 pages on all aspects of human waste and water disposal and, in particular, the often-impressive infrastructure created to deal with the age-old problem of sewage. It's no mean feat, helped by a lively style and excellent maps, drawings and archive photography ' - RIBA Journal 'Fascinating' - Creative Review