An interesting book that I would describe as mainly history but also autobiographical.
The author's knowledge of all the relevant sections of the Thames is obvious and well put together but I found the personal side of things somewhat less tightly constructed. In this respect I feel the book could have been edited and shortened which would have given a more concentrated read without losing any of the interest and knowledge expounded by the author.
My thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for the chance to give an unbiased review.

I really enjoyed reading this book. The book is split into 13 areas along the Thames and is told in a lyrical, storytelling style. It’s part history of London, and part personal memoir, linking the author to her beloved Thames. I liked her style and found the book easy to read. Sadly the digital copy lacked any images and I think this type of book needs photographs to illustrate the story. However, I enjoyed the book so much I can see myself picking up a hard copy to read again. The book is an entertaining read and a great way of finding out about ‘mudlarks’,l the ins and outs of treasures washed up along the Thames, and the history of our great city.

I recommend following Lara Maiklem on Instagram where she documents many of her finds at @london.mudlark

What a fascinating book this is. Lara Maiklem is a ‘mudlark’ and for the past fifteen years has been scavenging in the mud of the River Thames searching for items of historical value. Her journey takes us from the west of the Thames to the east and she weaves together the history of the areas she digs with fascinating stories about the items she discovers. Her book flows with tales like the river itself and the reader easily gets swept along with the enthralling stories around her booty. From Victorian toys to silver tankards, medieval buckles to an Amy Johnson flight pin and even on occasion a human bone. This is a wonderful history of past generations life by the river. I loved it!

I don't read a lot of non-fiction, though I go through phases where I just want to read something different, but this looked interesting when I was on Netgalley so I requested it and here we are...

For folks who don't know, 'mudlarking' is the term used to describe people who go looking for items left behind in the mud by tidal rivers, especially rivers like the Thames where people have been living for a very long time. Our author is a hobbyist mudlarker, having turned to it when she was struggling with her mental health and life stresses, and the book is based on her experiences of various parts of the river.

While it's a story of what she has found, from the macabre to the everyday, it's also set in the context of the development of London and the changes it has experienced. I didn't really come across much in terms of the historical content I wasn't already aware of, but then I've always been a history nerd so maybe I'm not quite the target audience for those sections?

In general terms, it's an interesting book and opens the doors on a hobby I hadn't really thought about before - I've been to a number of museums in London and seen stuff recovered from the river, never really thinking about who found it and how. The slightly obsessive nature of it all comes across well but it's also the one minor downfall of the book - at times it devolves into lists ('I found this and this and this...') and I found myself rolling my eyes, not to mention dropping it from five stars to four. There's also an entire paragraph that is just repeated from earlier in the same section, though that might be a formatting error along with the odd formatting in general of the ebook version I received.