Thames: The Biography
by Peter Ackroyd
List Price:
Our Price: $10.00
You Save: $11.00 (52%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $6.90 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Peter AckroydEdition: 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.England Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in England Books
King Edward VIII: The Official Biographyby Philip Ziegler
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd; Published: 1990-09-27; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $26.25
Court Lady and Country Wife: Two Noble Sisters in Seventeenth-Century Englandby Lita-Rose Betcherman
HarperCollins Canada; Published: 2005-09; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $11.72
Price in other shops:
Read My Heart: A Love Story in the Age of Revolutionby Jane Dunn
Harpercollins Canada; Published: 2008-10-21; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $8.94
Price in other shops:
No Graves As Yet (World War One Novels)by Anne Perry
Ballantine Books; Published: 2004-08-31; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.88
Price in other shops:
The Oxford History of BritainOxford University Press, USA; Published: 2010-06-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.05
Price in other shops:
The Nature of Monstersby Clare Clark
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; Published: 2007-05-07; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops:
Selkirk's Island: The True and Strange Adventures of the Real Robinson Crusoeby Diana Souhami
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; Published: 2002-02-07; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $1.87
Price in other shops:
The Great Hunger: Ireland: 1845-1849by Cecil Woodham-Smith
Penguin Group; Published: 1992-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.24
Price in other shops:
The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sistersby Charlotte Mosley
Harper; Published: 2007-11-06; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $10.58
Price in other shops:
The Professor and the Madmanby Simon Winchester
Harper; Published: 1998-08-26; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.74
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
London: The Biographyby Peter Ackroyd
Nan A. Talese; Published: 2001-10-16; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $38.99
Price in other shops:
London: A Social History (A "New York Times" notable book 1995)by Roy Porter
Harvard University Press; Published: 1998-02-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.17
Price in other shops:
The Greater Journey: Americans in Parisby David McCullough
Simon & Schuster; Published: 2011-05-24; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $15.00
Price in other shops:
The Life of Thomas Moreby Peter Ackroyd
Anchor; Published: 1999-11-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.97
Price in other shops:
Venice: Pure Cityby Peter Ackroyd
Nan A. Talese; Published: 2010-11-02; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $15.68
Price in other shops:
Streetwise London Map - Laminated City Center Street Map of London, Englandby Streetwise Maps
StreetWise; Streetwise Maps; Published: 2010-01-01; Map; Book
Best price: $3.93
Price in other shops:
Albion: The Origins of the English Imaginationby Peter Ackroyd
Anchor; Published: 2004-11-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.19
Price in other shops:
London: A Life in Mapsby Peter Whitfield
British Library; Published: 2007-06-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $29.84
London Under: The Secret History Beneath the Streetsby Peter Ackroyd
Nan A. Talese; Published: 2011-11-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $10.84
Price in other shops:
London: The Biographyby Peter Ackroyd
Anchor; Published: 2003-04-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.95
Price in other shops: