A MASSIVE book about the history of the British Isles by a Bolton-born academic has turned into an unexpected bestseller.

Norman Davies is one of the country's most respected historians and his 1,200-page hardback, "The Isles: A History", was published by Macmillan last November at £30 a copy.

It has just gone into paperback at £15 -- and the publishers Macmillan report that the book has already sold more than 50,000 copies which, as a spokeswoman said, is "extraordinary" for a book of this type and price.

Mr Davies was educated at Bolton School between 1948 and 1957 and is a graduate of Magdalen College, Oxford, and the University of Sussex.

He became a class teacher at Westhoughton County Primary School and, in the early 1960s, had a short spell as a history teacher at Bolton School (Girls' Division) before embarking on an international academic career.

This has taken him to, among other places, Poland, New York, Canada, Japan, China and America.

He has just been made a Supernumary Fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford, and is a Fellow of the British Academy, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and Professor Emeritus of London University.

Mr Davies is also author of several books on European history, including "God's Playground" and "Heart of Europe".

His latest, more domestic history is a challenging chronicle over more than 1,000 years.

But, in spite of the scope of the book, Mr Davies remains a Boltonian at heart and insists on paying due tribute to his home town.

On Page 634, he reveals: "Anyone born in Bolton will recognise the Boltonian theory of modern history.

"Basically, God had blessed Bolton with the purest water for washing cloth, and the blackest coal to fire the steam engines.

"And in 1779, he chose Samuel Crompton of Hall i' th' Wood to invent a wonderful machine, which not only produced a fine strong cotton thread, but also proved suitable for mechanization.

"Soon, Bolton's magnificent cotton mills gave a chance to the struggling port of Liverpool, where the cotton bales arrived from America, to the downtrodden city of Manchester, where people could now grow rich on the Cotton Exchange, and to a number of lesser towns in the vicinity such as Preston, Blackburn and Burnley where the threads could be woven into lovely vests and shorts.

"Soon, Lancashire's cotton trade was putting Yorkshire woollens into the shade. It clothed millions round the world, requiring the building of the world's biggest merchant fleet to carry it, and the world's strongest navy to protect it.

"Bolton Town Hall (1873) had the most elegant clock tower and civic centre in the land. Bolton Trinity Street was the best kept station on the L&Y, and Bolton Wanderers naturally won the first imperial cup final in the Empire Stadium at Wembley.

"Perhaps since the world is a wicked place, Samuel Crompton was allowed to die a pauper, and the premier borough of the United Kingdom was allowed to decline until it sank into the outer suburbs of Greater Manchester.

"Not all economic historians subscribe to every detail of the Boltonian theory ..."