A thoroughly entertaining, readable and informative account of the author's mudlarking adventures. When I was at school in London, one of my year group was a regular mudlarker, and I've often regretted that I didn't ask to join her as she, like Maiklem had her interest in history piqued by the experience. The book is thoughtfully arranged as a trip down the Thames, and as each chapter reveals the secrets of each zone, Maiklem focuses on a different area of interest, whether it's London's importance as a centre of shipping and trade, or the lives of ordinary residents of the city. This book would be of interest to anyone who enjoys history, but for a reader who knows London well, there's definitely an added dimension. ( )

I received this fantastic book from my husband as a Hanukkah gift---I love it so much! It definitely earns a rare 5 star rating for being one of the most interesting, engaging, and historically diverse books I've read. I've been following Maiklem on Instagram for at least a year---she's one of my favorite accounts so her book was on the top of my wishlist! It's everything I'd hoped it would be. More than just a book of facts and finds, Maiklem shows her heart in this work. Her love of the hunt outweighs her desire for treasure---as it should be, in my opinion. I love how she finds the simplest oddities to be extra special, yet is careful to leave some behind for other larkers or for the river to reclaim. I'm looking forward to purchasing her book on larking as soon as I can and would love to see more in print from Maiklem asap!

Note: for those disappointed that there are no photos, I do believe the British edition (called Mudlarking) does have photos. But---you can follow Maiklem on Instagram to see photos and videos of her finds! Her account is @london.mudlark ( )

She does a great job of creating a picture of Mudlarking. I love her almost poetic descriptions. There is a lot of history of mudlarking, the things they found and the history behind it all. ( )

I've followed the author's Instagram for ages and was delighted to finally get a chance to read this book, which I've been eagerly awaiting; it did not disappoint (other than that it really made me want to go explore the foreshore, which is tricky). ( )

A beautifully written book, a romance in which the River Thames takes the lead. Wonderfully gentle, recounting the authors finds and adventures searching for treasures in the mud. ( )

An interesting way to share history with today's excavation of the shores along the Thames River. My favorite parts were when the author talked about the origins of some of her more unique finds. ( )

I didn't enjoy this as much as I'd hoped, but there were many interesting bits and I learned some things, so overall it was alright. ( )

A mudlark is a person who scavenges for debris in the mud of a river or harbour. And that is how Lara Meiklem spends her free time, scavenging the foreshore of the River Thames with an enthusiasm that borders on obsession. On the tidal reaches of the river (and the River Thames is tidal as far upstream as Teddington Lock to the west of London) low tide exposes the banks of mud and gravel where the detritus of centuries can be found, from Roman game tokens and pieces of tesserae, to medieval buckles and shoes, to glass bottles from the nineteenth century:

I peer between the bricks and stones, looking around them as much as I can without moving them: I'm in a protected area, and I mustn't disturb as much as a pebble in my search. Kneeling down helps. It's a worm's eye view that means I can look more closely into dips and crevices and underneath overhanging bits of rubble. I can also look across patches of sand for subtle contours that suggest something might be hidden just below the surface. This close up, the gravel is not just a grey-brown textured mass — every stone is different — and I scan it for anything that doesn't fit.

In Mudlarking, Lara Meiklem provides an account of her activities, looking at how and why the items she collects have ended up in the river, and how the river itself has changed since London was settled in Roman times.

I used to work in an office just west of London Bridge that looked straight down onto the Thames (depending on the tide my view was either a patch of mud or a little flock of ducks) so I was interested to find out what that mud might contain. And it is an interesting account, but I kept wanting to know more about the topics that are only touched on tangentially, and I just couldn't generate quite as much enthusiasm over her mudlarked finds as Lara clearly does. I wanted to know more about the geographical history of the Thames. For instance, it's mentioned that in Roman times the Thames was only tidal until London Bridge, but doesn't really explain why. And I'd I have loved some maps showing how the river had changed over the centuries: as Lara points out, in Roman times the river used to be much wider and a visualisation of this would have been great.

A reasonable read, but a little bit anecdotal for my tastes. ( )

I was honestly surprised by how much I loved this book -- I picked it up because I have a friend who's been salivating over its publication for a year, and I thought I might find bits interesting. Nope, the whole thing is fascinating. Maiklem deftly weaves Thames' history through her personal journeys -- way more history than autobiography, but far more approachable to me through the lens of her memories.

I was also dubious because it's clearly not a heavily visual book, and yet it's all about finding objects. I've seen frustration about that mentioned elsewhere -- and then my friend mentioned that there is a companion Instagram collection that walks through the whole story visually. You can access that here: https://www.instagram.com/laramaiklem_mudlarking/?igshid=72axiv5fljim

I found that I didn't, in the end, need the visuals because Maiklem's prose is so richly evocative; however, I also appreciated catching up on the Insta feed, and enjoyed the photography very much. I think it's an innovative way to address an overwhelming number of visuals -- I just think maybe that needs to be more prominently conveyed in the marketing.

Overall, an astonishing journey through time and space, centering on everyday connections to objects. I loved it.

Advanced Reader's Copy Provided by Edelweiss. ( )

Interesting book on the Thames and the people who scour its shores for items from the past. I read that recent editions include pictures which would be great so get one of those if you are going to read this! ( )

My only experience of "mudlarking" was a short walk on the Thames "beach" at Southwark with granddaughter- bits of glass, shells, old rope...
This FASCINATING book by a professional takes you along the length of the Thames, from Teddington through to the dangerous mud flats of the estuary. Peppered with recollections of a fascination since childhood with collecting, and with historical facts, it was an unputdownable read. Different areas yield different specialities- from the 1950s waste of Tilbury, to Tudor relics near historic palaces.
I wish I lived in London...! ( )

Adaptation on BBC ...very interesting and enjoyable. And a day when worried about father in hospital...so must have been good to make such an impression then.. ( )

"The pretty porcelain head of a Victorian sailor figurine that I found rolling around at the edge of the water at Greenwich is wearing a straw hat, which was standard issue in the navy at that time. I found him at the bottom of the sweeping steps up which Nelson's coffin was carried following his death at the Battle of Trafalgar."

What a wonderful book! So much history in every yard of the river's shores.

I noticed an amusing error in the Greenwich section of the audiobook. The author, who narrated her own book, says Nelson's column instead of Nelson's coffin. Everyone is so used to the word column always coming after Nelson's, that is an easy mistake to make. I had to laugh, imagining hundreds of sailors struggling to carry Nelson's column off a very long barge and up the steps. ( )

The author is a collector of sorts. “Mudlarking” is collecting items/artifacts that are washed up and found in the mud along the banks of the Thames River, and apparently a lot of people do this. Some of these items are hundreds of years old. Some of the items, she is able to restore herself, and some she sends away for restoration. The chapters are organized by the area, and each will give a bit of history of the area (as this can affect the types of items found there), combined with some of the items she has found and the history of those items.

I found some chapters more interesting than others – the one at Greenwich, which looked at some Tudor history (the Greenwich Castle was one of Henry VIII’s favourite residences), along with animal bones and utensils found (and thus meals and utensils used during Tudor times). Oddly, the other chapter that held my interest more than others was the one of current day garbage. Overall, I’m calling this one ok. I had hoped to like it more – the premise is something I feel like I am interested in – but for some reason, it just couldn’t hold my interest all the way through. ( )

Interesting! I don't think I really learned much new - but I got new angles on things (historical events and periods) I already knew (plus a burning desire to mudlark on the Thames, someday). Her descriptions of what she's found, or what other mudlarks have found, are beautifully done - I can see the embossed marks on the bottles, the "bearded man" mugs, the smoothed-almost-to-oblivion coins... Some of her things, I think, are in museums, or at least similar things are. I'm going to see what I can see of them online. The history of the city in terms of its trash and where it ends up in the river is fascinating. I hope she writes/has written more, I'd love to read it. ( )

Sometimes a book presents itself at just the right time. Having to remain housebound during lockdown, this book offers escapism as it transports you to various locations along the Thames in London where 'mudlark' Lara Maiklem unearths treasures and describes their intricacies, beauty and histories. We seamlessly move from the modern day riverbank to distinct historic periods and back again. Lara Maiklem's narration is sublime: a calm, reassuring voice. ( )

Pretty much everything that humans have made used and thrown away will be here forever. Often these possessions have ended up in middens and now we bury vast quantities of our unwanted stuff in the ground in dumps. If you know where to look these relics from a time long gone can be found, especially along the foreshore of the tidal Thames.

There have been people finding the detritus and treasure alongside the capital’s river for hundreds of years. It has been called the world’s longest archaeological site! The people who look for those discarded and lost items are called mudlarks and for the past fifteen years, Lara Maiklem has walked searching for anything that she can find. The variety of things that she spots is quite astounding, and these tell the story of London going back several thousand years to the Neolithic.

I have been following her via various social media accounts for years now, so nice to read a little more on the subject as well as a little of her own history as to what she finds so addictive about doing it. I really enjoyed this and liked the way each chapter concentrated on different parts of the capital, from Hammersmith, Rotherhithe and right out into the estuary. I found her to be an informative writer who is passionate about her subject and keen to discover more about the objects she finds. If the book has one tiny flaw, it is that there are very few pictures of her finds. I know she has an Instagram account (https://www.instagram.com/laramaiklem_mudlarking/) that is linked to the book, but I am not on Instagram so couldn’t see them. ( )

An unexpectedly fascinating read about picking up bits of historical detritus on the banks of the Thames. Maiklem is a dedicated 'mudlark', but also someone with a vivid historical imagination - a battered shoe sole is not just a piece of ancient leather, but sends her off thinking about the Elizabethan woman who lost a shoe in the river. She has a knack for conveying the historical fascination, as well as her own delight in spotting the tiniest remains on the rivershore.

And the things that are there to find are remarkable - Iron and Bronze Age weaponry has been found on the banks of the Thames, but according to Maiklem, even a casual search can find Elizabethan remains, if you know what you're looking for. In fact I once had a look at the Thames foreshore myself, on an organised group visit with an experienced mudlark, and we found a lot of Victorian remains and one broken shard of Elizabethan pottery (associated with the Globe Theatre, not far from where we were standing.

But I would never have guessed that it's even possible to find fishbones! (at the shore in front of the old Palace of Greenwich) as well as fabric and wood remains. It turns out that because the mud of the Thames lacks oxygen, it is able to preserve all kinds of things, although the risk is that they fall apart as soon as they are recovered from the mud.

Maiklem has her own instagram @london.mudlark and also a specific instagram account for pictures linked to the book, @laramaiklem_mudlarking. The images there include a Roman bone game counter; a button celebrating the marriage of Charles I; the traces of wooden stakes from a possible Iron Age fish trap. Well worth a look (the instagram and the book)! ( )

Mudlark: In Search of London's Past Along the River Thames by Lara Maiklem
Published: 2019
Publisher: Liveright Publishing Corporation
Genre: Non-Fiction, History, England, London
Pages: 314
available: hardback, paperback, ebook
Violence: none 😀
Sex: none 💓

Reviewers Note: I checked this book out at my local library! I'm tempted to keep it. 😍 But I won't.

Author's Bio: Scraped from the internet: Maiklem was born in 1971 on a dairy farm in Surrey, 30 miles from Central London. Her father's family have been farmers for at least 400 years. Her mother's family are from London, until the early 20th century they worked as shipbuilders on the Thames and lived in the East End. She earned a degree in Sociology and Social Anthropology from Newcastle University in 1993. She lived in London for 25 years and now lives on the Kent coast with her partner and two children. She is licensed to mudlark on the River Thames by the Port of London Authority and has been searching the foreshore in her spare time for over 15 years.

My Review: I first heard of the author Lara Maiklem via Twitter. Someone retweeted one of her tweets about her madlarking finds. Lara Maiklem mudlarks along the foreshore of the River Thames in search of historical artifacts. She posts about her finds on Facebook and Twitter. This led me to follow Maiklem on social media and watch her videos on Youtube. I was intrigued. (more on this later.) I did not realize she had written a book until I saw it in my library and immediately dropped the other books I was looking at and ran home to start reading.

I gotta tell you straight up, this book is amazing. I couldn't put it down. Lara Maiklem has written a love letter to the Thames, to London and to English history. Starting at the tidal head of the Thames River in Teddington, Maiklem takes us on a seaward tour of the river, stopping at prime mudlarking sites, chapter by chapter. Now to some, this sounds like a coma-inducing bore, but it's not.

Maiklem has the rare talent of making the past come alive. The author describes in great detail the foreshore of the river and shares the history of the Thames from pre-Roman to modern times.Her love of the river is reflected in the pages as she details the changes wrought by man over the centuries as they forced, what was once a wide shallow river into an embankment-confided, channel-dredged super-highway to the sea.

The author shares not only her amazing finds: pottery shards, roman beads, coins of all ages, 17th century tobacco pipes, ceramic dolls, 600 year old leather shoes, and so much more, but she researches and tell us the history behind the object. We learn when it was made, where, how, and who might have used and lost it. Maiklem believes each item, whether a lowly button or a valuable roman artifact, has a story to tell about the human who once held then lost it.

Now, here is my one and only complaint about the book. THERE ARE NO PICTURES! I had to sit with my phone handy, ready to Google items that I just had to see a picture of. My favorite find was the Frozen Charlotte dolls. I loved the back story about the doll, and of course, I had to see an actual picture of one.

Recommendation: If you love history, especially British/English history you will love this book!

I give this book 5 Stars⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ( )

Lara Maiklem is a mudlark. She can be found at low tide walking the beaches and mud of the River Thames, foraging, searching, collecting bits and pieces. And in the course of her memoir ‘Mudlarking’, she tells the history of the river. This is a personal history, not a novel.
Starting at the tidal head near Teddington and heading east to the Thames Estuary, Maiklem has written an anecdotal guide to London’s river, the treasures which can be found buried in the mud, and tells the stories of the people [real and imagined] who once lived there. From the discarded Doves Type to broken clay pipes and glass bottle stoppers, she describes the objects she has found, their place in her collection, her methods of cleaning and preserving them. Along the way she consults experts and historians and forages with fellow mudlarks who each have their favourite places, their specialist objects to collect.
‘Modern mudlarks fall into two distinct categories,’ she explains. ‘Hunters and gatherers. I am one of the latter. I find objects using just my eyes to spot what is lying on the surface. Eyes-only foragers like me generally enjoy the searching as much as the finding, and derive pleasure from the simplest of objects: an unusually shaped stone, a colourful shard of pottery or a random blob of lead. There is an element of meditation to what we do, and as far as I’m concerned the time I spend looing is as important if not more so, that the objects I take home with me.’
At times the pace seemed a little slow – lots of descriptions of mud – but the nature of mudlarking itself is slow and contemplative. I enjoyed the insights into the river’s history, the anecdotes and fascinating detail not normally heard. A book to be enjoyed at a leisurely pace.
Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-reviews-a-z/ ( )

This was an interesting book, once I got my head into the author's frame of mind. A mudlark is someone who searches for foreshore for items left in the mud. In the past that would have been for items to sell, nowadays it is morelikely for items of historical value. She starts her tale at the furthest reaches of the tidal Thames and each chapter is based around a stretch of the river until we finish at the Estuary. However each chapter is not set purely in that locaiton, it is a jumping off point for what ever follows, so items found may link to items found elsewhere, her family (both recent and past) and so on. Took me a little while to get used to this, and once I did, it worked. There were some really interesting elements in here, the story of the typeface, for instance, was fascinating and I can see how easily that could become an obsession.
The one thing this book is sevrely lacking is illustrations. There are 2 maps of the river, and an engraving of one of the historic mudlarks mentioned in the text, but that was it. No images of the many items she's discussing, nothing to give you any frame of reference for the topic at hand. It felt like it could have been improved but someone ran out of energy or enthusiasm, I'm not sure which. It's a shame, as it would have made a significant difference to the experience of the text. ( )

'Mudlarking', or searching through the mud of the foreshore at low tide to find treasures washed up by the river, is a simple and timeless pastime, but not one that really occurred to me before reading Lara Maiklem's part-biography, part historical study. I would have associated grubbing through the muck of the Thames more with characters in Dickens than modern Londoners, but I can see the appeal now. I too would be fascinated by that brush with the past when picking up unconsidered trifles like coins, clay pipes and old bottles. Who touched these items last? What was their story?

Lara takes us on a mudlarking journey along the Thames from Teddington to the wonderfully named Hoo Peninsula in the Thames Estuary, telling us about her life and how she discovered the art of sifting the river banks for treasure to examples of the weird and wonderful items she and other mudlarkers have found. From tokens in Bankside, (chain) mail, lead shot and UXBs at Tower Beach and sewage and modern pollution at Tilbury, artefacts of history from the Romans to the World Wars are always washing up with the tide. Lara thoughtfully decides what to keep and what to give back to the river.

Like the best non-fiction, I learned a lot from Lara. For instance, there is a Society of Mudlarkers and a mudlarking permit system - only those with a 'mudlark' permit can use metal detectors and dig down into the foreshore for their treasures (and 'treasure' is also legally defined, and must be reported to the Crown/City of London). The 'godfather of mudlarking' was a man called Noel Hume, who called himself 'a something for nothing collector' and donated his amazing haul to a London museum. And mudlarkers can be divided into two camps - hunters, usually men, who employ metal detectors and are 'more demanding of the river', and gatherers, women like Lara who consider that 'time spent looking is more important' than finding.

My one criticism of this eyeopening account would have to be the distinct dearth of photographs! There are some beautiful illustrations of finds by a fellow mudlarker on the endpapers, but not a single image otherwise - I had to Google the bronze statues on Vauxhall Bridge, Trig Lane stairs, the Ferryman's Seat at Bankside and the Doomsday Ship at Sheerness, never mind some of the incredible items Lara must have found over the years. Very disappointing.

Overall, though, this is a personal introduction to an unusual hobby, and I enjoyed the adventure. I must end with this quote on the evils of tobacco from James I on tobacco, though:

'A custome lothsome to the eye, hatefull to the Nose, harmeful to the braine, dangerous to the Lungs, and in the blacke stinking fume thereof, nearest resembling the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless'! ( )

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.

Author Lara Maiklem is a proud London mudlark and shares her finds in Mudlarking - Lost and Found on the River Thames. First, some interesting facts about the Thames from the book.

FACTS
"...the height between low and high water at London Bridge varies from fifteen to twenty-two feet [and] it takes six hours for the water to come upriver and six and a half for it to flow back out to sea." Page 3

"The tides today are higher than they have been at any time in history." Page 13

"... in 1957, the Natural History Museum declared the Thames 'biologically dead' ... A campaign to clean up the Thames began in the 1960s and by the end of the 1970s the river was considered to be 'rehabilitated'. It is now cleaner than it has been in living memory and supports over 125 species of fish." Page 259

FINDS
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.

One of my favourite finds from the book was the legend of the Doves Type. A bookbinder by the name of Cobden-Sanderson tipped 500,000 pieces of lead type into the river at Hammersmith. Following a dispute about the ownership of the type with Emery Walker, he bequeathed the type to the River Thames between 1913 - 1916 and mudlarks have been searching for them ever since. Such a fascinating story.

In January 2018 I thoroughly enjoyed How To Be a Tudor by Ruth Goodman and the tidbit that pins from this era are still being found in the Thames today. Maiklem expands on the humble pin on page 86 and I was transfixed by her words. She tells us pins accumulate and wash together in tangled metallic nests and that pins are one of her favourite treasures to find because they're so ordinary.

HISTORY
I also enjoyed the London Bridge chapter, particularly the information about old London bridge.

"The old bridge was built with nineteen arches of varying widths and wide piers... which created a virtual barrier across the river, impeding its flow and trapping the tide." Page 145

I had no idea the construction of the old bridge slowed the water to such an extent the river froze over in harsh winters. I knew about the festivities that took place when the Thames froze over in the 1600s but wasn't aware that it doesn't do so now because these obstructions were removed when the old bridge was demolished.

Turning to more recent history and how did I not know about London's Riveria known as Tower Beach?

"The half-moon of soft yellow sand that forms a gentle hill in front of the river wall and peters out to shingle towards the river, is all that remains of 'London's Riviera', 1,500 barge-loads of Essex sand that was spread over the foreshore to create a public beach in 1934." Page 165

Apparently Tower Beach was a great success and in 1935 approximately 100,000 people came to 'holiday' beside the Thames. What a sight this must have been.

MEMOIR
From the very beginning, Maiklem tells the reader just what mudlarking means to her:

"I have carefully arranged meetings and appointments according to the tides, and conspired to meet friends near the river so that I can steal down to the foreshore before the water comes in and after it's flowed out. I've kept people waiting, bringing a trail of mud and apologies in my wake; missed the start of many films and even left early to catch the last few inches of foreshore. I have lied, cajoled and manipulated to get time by the river. It comes knocking at all hours and I obey..." Page 3

Armed with this information on just how much this obsession controls the author's life, I formed the opinion she'd make an unreliable friend and frustrating partner but is no doubt a highly experienced mudlarker.

However she makes mention several times throughout the book that she won't share specific locations. By omitting them the reader can join the dots on their own (or not), but openly stating she won't share the locations made her seem arrogant in my view.

Here's an example:
"I have two American plantation tokens, both of which I found within a few feet of each other (I'm not saying where), and several years apart." Page 203

What's the point? Trust me, her finds are fascinating enough (buckles, coins, leather shoes, buttons, clay pipes, beads, ink pots and more) and I don't think anyone would expect her to disclose her secret locations.

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:

"My special patch has been covered up, ... and half an hour on every tide has been taken away from me." Page 248

I'd like to tell the author 'your special patch isn't yours and so it can't be taken away from you'. Losing access may be a sore point, but have gratitude for the access you do have and what you managed to find there in the past. While Maiklem acknowledges the perils of erosion, she notes that it also washes out treasures for mudlarks to find.

CONCLUSION
On a lighter note, Maiklem has a marvellous ability to bring history to life. She uses her imagination to breathe life into the objects she unearths and I enjoyed this immensely.

However, I wish there had been photographs to accompany the text. So much of what the author shares with us has a visual component and I felt this was missing in Mudlarking. The only saving grace is that Maiklem has an awesome Instagram account and I was able to go there to see photographs of some of her finds.

In summary, I adored learning more about the history of the River Thames, I was gripped by every item the author discovered and researched but I could happily have done without the memoir aspect with no sense of loss at all.

Recommended reading for amateur and professional historians and genealogists; archaeologists; aquaphiles; environmentalists; museum lovers and the curious.

* Copy courtesy of Bloomsbury Circus * ( )

For centuries people have searched the foreshore at low tide on the Thames for a chance of making a living or, more recently, to find treasure. These mudlarks have a history tied up with that of the city. Lara Maiklem is a long-standing member of the community and she takes the reader on a geographical journey down the thames and across the centuries as she indulges in her surprisingly interesting hobby.
The passionate hobbit is a passionate person indeed and Maiklem embodies this amateur enthusiasm. Her book is a love story to the river and the city and a gallop through thousands of years of history. Encompassing history, geography, geology, sociology and even a bit of danger, the sense of humour is to the fore always and this is a delightful read. ( )

Its amazing what people get up to... this woman enjoys going down to the banks of the Thames at low tide and searching through the rubbish. The remarkable thing is that there's lots of interesting stuff to find, and it doesn't all smell. There are apparently areas with any amount of Roman remains, Georgian pins, and a specific sort of Type to be found. In amongst the accounts of the different parts of the tidal Thames, (it has to be tidal to churn up the stuff) she tells us the stories of the place or the people involved. You learn about traitors and bricks; and filth too. It turns out there are packs of mudlarks going through the stuff and websites devoted to their pickings, and the Museums regularly acquire exhibits from them. A surprisingly enjoyable book. ( )