Mudlark: In Search of London's Past Along the River Thames

Written by Lara Maiklem

Narrated by Xanthe Elbrick

A quixotic journey through London's past, Mudlark plumbs the banks of the Thames to reveal the stories hidden behind the archaeological remnants of an ancient city. Long heralded as a city treasure herself, expert "mudlarker" Lara Maiklem is uniquely trained in the art of seeking. Tirelessly trekking across miles of the Thames' muddy shores, where others only see the detritus of city life, Maiklem unearths evidence of England's captivating, if sometimes murky, history?with some objects dating back to 43 AD, when London was but an outpost of the Roman Empire. From medieval mail worn by warriors on English battlefields to nineteenth-century glass marbles mass-produced for the nation's first soda bottles, Maiklem deduces the historical significance of these artifacts with the quirky enthusiasm and sharp-sightedness of a twenty-first century Sherlock Holmes. Seamlessly interweaving reflections from her own life with meditations on the art of wandering, Maiklem ultimately delivers?for Anglophiles and history lovers alike?a memorable treatise on the objects we leave in our wake, and the stories they can reveal if only we take a moment to look.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Nov 5, 2019
• ISBN: 9781980064749

Lara Maiklem

Lara Maiklem moved from her family's farm to London in the 1990s and has been mudlarking along the River Thames for fifteen years. She now lives with her family on the Kent coast within easy reach of the river, which she visits as regularly as the tides permit. Her first book, Mudlarking, was a critically aclaimed bestseller. Twitter: @LondonMudlark / Instagram: @london.mudlark

Reviews for Mudlark

[jorgeousjotts · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

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.

[jbd1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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).

[starbox_2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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...!

[isabelx_21 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

"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.

[librarycin · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

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.

[jjmcgaffey · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

[wandering_star_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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)!

[helenliz_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

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.

[adonisguilfoyle · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

'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'!

[oataker-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

[carltonc_5 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I felt reading this book was somewhat like mudlarking itself, without having to get muddy, as there are interesting nuggets of personal story telling and historical anecdote scattered throughout the book, but it required reading through what felt like filler.This is perhaps a little unkind, as I enjoyed the book overall, but whilst its clever fusing of Lara’s personal story of discovering mudlarking with a geographical journey down the Thames and recounting of historical stories associated with the various sites visited gave the book structure, it felt mannered, forced.