"A storm rages over the north of Britain. A troop carrier founders in the Irish Sea; flood indicators go off the scale; the seas are mountainous and a spring tide is about to strike the East Coast. Air-Sea rescue and military personnel struggle to save lives all down the coast. The worst is yet to come. When the storm reaches the south the two forces of wind and tide will combine and send a huge one-in-a-thousand tidal surge up the Thames."

This website explains the science behind the book and answers the question of whether this could really happen.