Mudlarking: Lost and Found on the River Thames

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You immediately feel comfortable with this author in her hobby, obsession and delight for Mudlarking. This is one of the best non-fiction books I have read in a long time. I am amazed it is Lara’s first move to becoming a published author. I’m sure it was a hard slog and kept her from those hours of solitude and peace beside her beloved river. Her efforts are well received and she can be so proud of her disciplined writing and research. Her approach sustained my interest throughout the journey along the river and I would recommend this book without reservation to all. Mudlarking is charged throughout with love for London and its history. Maiklem’s descriptions are witty, evocative and she has some wonderful anecdotes to relate. The history she encounters in the silt of the river hark from the depths of the Bronze Age all the way through to the palaces of the Tudor period and the filth of the Victorian era. As comprehensive as it may be, the history is never dry, and spans so much further than just that of Britain. Maiklem reaches out to the far corners of the globe; detailing 18th century transportations, the horrors of transatlantic slave trade, and even merchant ships hawking sugar and spice and all things nice. Marie Louise Plum, or @oldfatherthames, also posts educational videos and vlogs of her mudlarking adventures on her YouTube channel. While I found the writing and the river description, route, clarity to place names upon it- all of that IS exceptional, still! Still, I found most of her tasking while mudlarking becoming insipid. It's me. Too much of the same, too much of the same.

The book is arranged geographically, moving west to east along the Thames. I’m not familiar enough with London for this progression to have meant much to me, so by just past the halfway point the chapters felt like “here’s where I went and here’s some things I found” and “here’s somewhere else I went and some other things I found.” I’m not sure how the structure could have been more successful: perhaps each chapter could have focused on a different time period or category of finds? All the same, this is a fascinating way of bringing history to life and imagining what everyday existence was like for Londoners across the centuries. (If only there were photographs of Maiklem’s collection!)I wish I could say more than that. On paper, this should be right up my street. It's the kind of fun micro-history that covers a nice range of time periods and is filled with fun factoids that I would normally love, but for some reason it's missed the mark. Maybe its the authorial voice? Maybe its the additions of autobiographical details that I don't care about? Maybe it was just that I didn't enjoy the audio book narration? I really can't put my finger on it, but my response to this book can be described as lukewarm at best. Thames mud is anaerobic – that means there's no oxygen – so things that fall in thousands of years ago just wash up in the same condition that they were dropped in many years ago.”

In fact, the educational side, of sharing the stories behind their found items, is important to many members of the community. Another thing that irked me was her belief that a portion of the shore had been taken away from her. When telling the reader about nets of stones placed against the river wall in Greenwich in an attempt to prevent erosion, she says: The morbid part of me especially enjoyed hearing of Maiklem’s encounters with human remains -both modern and ancient - and following her speculations as to the life they may have led. I’m still haunted by her description of Amy Johnson’s tragic end – and my imagination was particularly captured by the fact that although her chequebook, logbook and travel bag were retrieved, her body was never found… In Mudlarking, Lara Maiklem takes us down the river from Teddington to the Estuary and the open sea in a combination of memoir, archaeology, science and history in a narrative non-fiction style of writing. She tells us her preferred method of searching the river bed and banks is to kneel with her 'nose barely inches from the foreshore' where she completely immerses herself in the task.

Mudlarking is the act of searching or scavenging in the river mud at low tide seeking items of value. Modern mudlarks forage in the mud in search of items from history - regardless of value - and it's amazing what they find. I saw the River Thames in person for the first time in 2012 but it's always been fascinating to me as a repository of history. Recommended reading for amateur and professional historians and genealogists; archaeologists; aquaphiles; environmentalists; museum lovers and the curious. Previously: [please read my earlier review below. I stand by every word now that I have read the whole book].