Mudlark Paperback by Lara Maiklem

Product Details

• Publisher: Liveright (2021-06-08)
• Language: English
• Paperback: 336 pages
• ISBN-13: 9781631494963
• Item Weight: 300.51 grams
• Dimensions: 20.93 x 13.87 x 2.08 cm

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.

About the Author

Featured in the Guardian and on the BBC and NPR for her work as the “London Mudlark,” Lara Maiklem lives on the Kent coast, close to the Thames Estuary, and visits the river as regularly as the tides permit.