My next book, the follow up to Mudlarking, is coming soon!
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 (read by me), 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
