A Mudlarking Year: Finding Treasure in Every Season (Bloomsbury, 2024)
The story of a year spent searching the Thames foreshore and further afield, finding solace in aligning with the elements and uncovering new treasures. It is a gentle ode to nature, history and the simple art of looking, and an invitation to discover hidden objects in the most overlooked part of the city, the secrets they reveal and the stories that are patiently waiting to be told. Where Mudlarking was a paddle along the length of the tidal Thames, A Mudlarking Year is a deeper dive into the mud and the sometimes murky world of mudlarking.
Available as an audiobook and on Kindle.
Quotes:
"A beautifully written book, absorbing and full of unexpected gems." Times Literary Supplement
"Lara Maiklem is a phenomenon. She elevates a muddy trudge to an epic gallivant through our past. The foreshore is no longer a grubby backwater but our own Valley of the Kings, rich in beauty and poignancy." Dan Snow
“Catches the tide of history at just the point where obsession and heroic discipline lifts the journal of an individual into revelation open to us all. And it begins to feel as if the Thames itself is dictating as much of the story as we are allowed to know.” Iain Sinclair
“An absolute treasure trove of sound advice and historical detail, full of year-round inspiration.” Katherine May
“The best historians – and the rarest – are those who look at the past and do not simply objectify it, recounting what happened and why, but intercede between the living and the dead, conveying meaning and understanding so we can see ourselves in the perspective of time. Lara is such a person: a gifted, sympathetic writer who can find poetic truth in the flotsam of forgotten lives.” Ian Mortimer
"It is totally transporting: the mysteries of the foreshore are ever enchanting, and in her hands, tangible. She writes with such elegance that I could read her day in, day out." Sophie Dahl
“Evocative, beautifully written and endlessly fascinating, this is a book to get lost in, whatever the season. There is a delicious sense of anticipation and discovery throughout, and the reader is rewarded with a rich and eclectic trove of finds - from a Neolithic arrowhead to a Tudor posey ring. These seemingly disparate fragments of history unite to form a dazzling patchwork of the past.” Tracy Borman
“An evocative month-by-month account of Lara's addiction “to chasing lost and discarded objects and pulling stories of forgotten Londoners from the mud” . . . her truffling does more than connect her with long forgotten lives – it links her with her fellow obsessives and with the seasons as they ebb and flow along with the river” New Statesman
“A beautiful, meandering book, much like the river itself, where time and nature collide in the gloopy mud of the Thames. Enchanting, lyrical and historically fascinating.” Sam Heughan
“A truly wonderful book, full of fascinating details from start to finish. A must read for any Londoner, as you'll see the city with fresh eyes. I loved it!” Alice Loxton
“With her unequivocal talent and narrative flair, Lara Maiklem takes her readers on an enticing adventure and offers them the opportunity to encounter the lost objects of the past that she herself has spent years discovering. Warm, personable, and thoroughly absorbing, A Mudlarking Year is a triumph of a page-turner for which Lara Maiklem is to be applauded.” Nicola Tallis
“A beautiful reflection of what it means to be human. It is a connection to the past through both tangible history and the eternal cycle of nature that has always bound us. It makes me want to sink my own hands into the silt of the river.” Helen Carr
“It is no accident or fluke that Lara Maiklem has so swiftly acquired such a multitudinous and highly engaged following: she is a natural historian and a born storyteller. She has quietly graduated in a university of the unobserved places, stepping out as Professor of the Underbelly, expert in the secrets of waste grounds and beaches but especially of the Thames foreshore. Reading her latest book, I think she’s in the midst of producing a vital brand-new history of London seen from below.” Emma Bridgewater
“A Mudlarking Year is utterly brilliant. There's a wonderful balance of observation, which feels very
grounded and disciplined, with understated passion . . . The book also made me think about our (my) relationship with objects in a new light, and how the material world is infused with desire and history and identity” Bridget Collins
“A Mudlarking Year is a love story between person and place that explores what it means to be human through the things we leave behind. Lara’s passion for flows from every page.” Rebecca Struthers
“A powerful reflection on time, history and attention to the present moment. Her voice is rich and warm, inviting us to see beyond the surface of abandoned fragments of lost and shattered things to a deeper connection with the people of the past. Maiklem’s work is not unlike that of the therapist who seeks to understand the history of people’s experience but must stand and look and not rush in too deep nor too fast” Gwen Adshead
“Historically fascinating, domestic, fugitive, mournful, surreal, comic, all by turns . . . [Maiklem] is a
modern Everyperson, sifting through a long human history, and coming up with literary pearls, if not often actual ones” Tablet
“Her second publication, A Mudlarking Year, proves that she’s no one hit wonder by recapturing that magic. It is my ideal form of non-fiction, learning history effortlessly through Lara’s
conversational writing style … Above all, the book shines for Lara’s love for the subject” David
Schuster
Mudlarking: Lost and Found on the River Thames
(Bloomsbury, 2019)
A hybrid of personal memoir, London history and literary cabinet of curiosities, Mudlarking takes you on a journey down the tidal Thames and tells the story of the river, the city and the mudlarks that work the shore through more than 2,000 years of lost and discarded objects.
Available as an audiobook, in large print and Kindle.
Mudlarking is published in Australia and New Zealand by Bloomsbury and in Canada and the US by WW Norton as Mudlark: In Search of London’s Past Along the River Thames.
- A Sunday Times bestseller in hardback and paperback
- Winner of the Indie Book Award for Non-Fiction, 2020
- A BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week
- An Observer Book of the Year, 2019
- Apple Books Pick, 2019
- Daily Express Greatest Read, 2019
- #1 bestselling audiobook
Quotes:
Maiklem persists, in this weirdly engaging book, in seeking out a curious beauty. [Her] description of the fog is worthy of Dickens or Joseph Conrad. [She] pungently evokes the broken bridges, slippery river stairs, causeways, jetties and boatyards. No one has looked at these odd corners since Sherlock Holmes . The Sunday Telegraph
A lovely, lyrical, gently meandering book, filled with fascinating diversions and detail. Literary Review
Maiklem's enthusiasm is infectious, and her reimagining of the lives of those who parted with these items is an illuminated joy. i
[An] engrossing memoir. The New Yorker
Whoever buys it is blessed. I love the fact that [Maiklem] makes herself the centre of this huge, timeless, endless story that reaches from the distant past and flows past all our consciousnesses out to a place far beyond the reach of the estuary. Lara is such a natural writer; every page just tingles with her imagination. It is a love letter to life itself. Ian Mortimer, author of The Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England
A treasure-trove of a book. Sydney Morning Herald
Lara is a romantic, motivated primarily by the human stories behind the objects. Curiosity may kill the cat, but it is the making of many an author. And Lara has it in spades. Daily Express Greatest Read
Maiklem augments the Thamesian tally, summoning old Londoners out of silty suspension from a discarded Victoria Cross or a pot-lid. There are other mudlarking books, but this one offers engaging insight into an amphibian ambience of strongly marked characters, semi-secret exploits and outlandish theories. The Spectator
She wears her learning lightly, yet every page is full of historical detail. The Herald, Scotland
Her prose has none of the self-conscious sensibility that defines contemporary nature writing; her thoughtful sentences read as though she were talking to herself. There is a great deal to learn from these pages, not least the insight that finding lost things is the best way of losing yourself. The Guardian
Enchanting. It made even a capsized cynic like me feel more sentimental about the Thames. The Sunday Times
Enchanting. Sophie Dahl for The New York Times Magazine
By reading her beautiful and meandering book, one is able to inhabit Maiklem’s own life, following her all the way down the Estuary, where she encounters, in contrast to the narrow foreshore in central London, “mile upon mile of smooth sludge, it’s watery surface reflecting the thin early-morning light”. TLS
Mudlarking eloquently reminds us that there are many ways to write history. The West Australian
A beautifully written memoir of one woman's relationship with the sacred Thames and the ghosts of its past. Lara Maiklem's book on mudlarking is as deep and as rich as the Thames and its treasures. Fascinating. Stanley Tucci, actor
Strewn with cultural gems. Wall St Journal
Maiklem's storytelling shines. Her imagined histories for her special finds read like waterborne fairy stories, a hard kernel of truth clothed in mythical finery. Reading it, I felt like I was down on the foreshore myself, sifting through the pages for titbits.
The Telegraph
Reveals to us the fascinating and poignant micro-world of London's history. Hallie Rubenhold, author of The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper
In its odd and utterly entrancing way, this is one timely book, evidence that the English have not completely abandoned all their more gentle eccentricities in three years of bitter Brexit madness. Maclean’s
Lara Maiklem’s book is enchanting, haunting and historically fascinating. Sam Heughan, actor, for The Herald
Maiklem’s restless river of fogs, smells and treacherous tides is a surprisingly wild refuge in a modern metropolis, which she evokes with respectful affection. The Australian
[A] delightful work. The Washington Post
An enthralling history of our capital and its people. Daily Express
A delightful evocation of place and former times, as well as associated objects; if you would like to spend time somewhere other than your present reality, I suggest a leisurely stroll through its pages. Fortean Times
This beautifully written book has justifiably become a bestseller. The British Museum Magazine
A Field Guide to Larking: Beachcombing, Mudlarking, Fieldwalking and More (Bloomsbury, 2021)
If my first book was a glimpse into a hidden world, then this field guide shows you how to discover it for yourself. The Field Guide to Larking is a practical, interactive and inspiring illustrated guide to finding the little treasures that are often hiding in plain sight. There is of course mudlarking on rivers, but you can also lark on beaches, in fields, gardens and even in your own house. From tide tables for mudlarks and a sea glass rarity chart for beachlarks, to pottery identification guides, tips on spotting worked prehistoric flints in the field, and conserving finds made of wood, bone and leather, this book is an essential companion for magpie minds everywhere.
Available as an audiobook and on Kindle.
- A Waterstones Best Book, 2021
- Shortlisted for the London Archaeology Prize, 2022
Quotes:
She’s fascinating, and this book would make a genius present for grown-ups or kids looking to treasure hunt. Sophie Dahl
The Armourer’s House, Rosemary Sutcliffe, Introduction by Lara Maiklem (Manderley Press, 2022)
If you’re of a certain age you might remember Rosemary Sutcliffe, a novelist best known for bringing history vividly to life for children. Rosemary was a master of detail and a fabulous storyteller, so it was a great honour to be asked to write the introduction to this beautifully illustrated re-issue.
Looking for Treasure (Harper Collins, 2022)
A reading book aimed at children 7+ who need more practice to acquire phonics skills.
