Mudlarking
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WINNER OF THE INDIE BOOK AWARD FOR NON-FICTION
THE TOP 2 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
A BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK
AN OBSERVER BOOK OF THE YEAR
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Mudlark (/‘mAdla;k/) noun A person who scavenges for usable debris in the mud of a river or harbour
Lara Maiklem has scoured the banks of the Thames for over fifteen years, in pursuit of the objects that the river unearths: from Neolithic flints to Roman hair pins, medieval buckles to Tudor buttons, Georgian clay pipes to Victorian toys. These objects tell her about London and its lost ways of life.
Moving from the river’s tidal origins in the west of the city to the point where it meets the sea in the east, Mudlarking is a search for urban solitude and history on the River Thames, which Lara calls the longest archaeological site in England.
As she has discovered, it is often the tiniest objects that tell the greatest stories.
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'Enchanting' - Sunday Times
'Driven by curiosity, freighted with mystery and tempered by chance, wonders gleam from every page' - Melissa Harrison
'Brilliant. No one has looked at these odd corners since Sherlock Holmes' - Sunday Telegraph
'The very best books that deal with the past are love letters to their subject, and the very best of those are about subjects that love their authors in return. Such books are very rare, but this is one' - Ian Mortimer
'Fascinating. There is nothing that Maiklem does not know about the history of the river or the thingyness of things' - Guardian
'A treasure. One of the best books I've read in years' - Tracy Borman
Lara Maiklem moved from her family's farm to London in the 1990s and has been mudlarking along the River Thames for fifteen years. She now lives with her family on the Kent coast within easy reach of the river, which she visits as regularly as the tides permit. In 2022, she was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. This is her first book.
Twitter: @LondonMudlark / Instagram: @london.mudlark