Thames: The Biography

Thames: The Biography
by Peter Ackroyd

Thames: The Biography
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Book Summary Information

Author: Peter Ackroyd
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-11-03
ISBN: 0307389847
Number of pages: 528
Publisher: Anchor

Book Reviews of Thames: The Biography

Book Review: Meet Father Thames
Summary: 4 Stars

Peter Ackroyd's "Thames" scours the marshes and mud flats for traces of long forgotten civilizations and dredges up waterlogged mysteries.

He shows us the inky waters; infested marshes; dense fogs; overpowering stinks. This famous river was lined with toxic pudding-like mud, and bordered by mysterious ancient earthworks. Once inhabited by mud larks, costermongers, touters, carrot crunchers, lumpers, bargees, and scufflehunters, it is celebrated for the "gross abusiveness" of its fishwives, and watermen swearing all the way from Cricklade to Gravesend.

The Thames is "a highway, a frontier and an attack route, it has been a playground and a sewer, a source of water and a source of power." As the author called it -- a "museum of Englishness."

Peter Ackroyd's book captures the story in a series of snapshots -- brief chapters on the human occupation and natural history of this storied river. Some are familiar: dangerous work on the Victorian docks, the miserable lot of rural English poor, and life in Julius Caesar's and William Shakespeare's London. Other factors are invisible today -- how the Thames once flowed into the Rhine, its banks dotted with now lost religious manors and monasteries, rickety medieval bridges blocking Danish invaders, and what about the mysterious hordes of prehistory weapons and skulls deposited into the dark waters -- for what reason?

Through most of "Thames" the author keeps a firm hand on the tiller, navigating tales of geology, the arts, geography and life in such a way as we close the book, at last, amazed that these stories have gone forgotten -- and wondering what other interesting tales might be out there.

Mr. Ackroyd, somewhat miraculously, paddles downstream through all of this in over 400 pages. His subject material is wide and varied. On the one hand, it all adds up to a curious hop-scotch journey through British civilization. On the other hand, "Thames" is an entertaining snapshot of one of the most recognized rivers in the world.

Summary of Thames: The Biography

In this perfect companion to London: The Biography, Peter Ackroyd once again delves into the hidden byways of history, describing the river's endless allure in a journey overflowing with characters, incidents, and wry observations. Thames: The Biography meanders gloriously, rather like the river itself. In short, lively chapters Ackroyd writes about connections between the Thames and such historical figures as Julius Caesar and Henry VIII, and offers memorable portraits of the ordinary men and women who depend upon the river for their livelihoods. The Thames as a source of artistic inspiration comes brilliantly to life as Ackroyd invokes Chaucer, Shakespeare, Turner, Shelley, and other writers, poets, and painters who have been enchanted by its many moods and colors.

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