Mudlark - Lara Maiklem - 3.5 rounded up

[Booknblues]

Lara Maiklem grew up on Tudor era dairy farm but craved the excitement of the big city. After living in London for a while she began to miss the rejuvenation that comes from being immersed in nature:

"Sometimes it pricked my conscience, making me feel sad, remorseful and even guilty. I began to realise how disconnected I was becoming from the world I had grown up in. I was part of two worlds. I was the farm kid who had dreamed of bigger, more exciting places, but deep down I was missing home and pining for what I’d left behind."

In her efforts to reconnect with the natural world she found her self wandering down on the banks of the Thames. She started looking down where she was walking and picking up dibs and dabs from a by-gone era. She worked out that the Thames was effected by the tides and if she could wander down when it was at its lowest there were new treasures to be found. Maiklem soon realized that there was a term for what she was doing "Mudlarking."

And so Maiklem takes us on a mudlarking adventure from the last westward point in which the Thames is effected by the tide eastward to the estuary where the Thames meets the North Sea.

Along this meandering adventure Lara discusses subjects as varied as how the Thames got its name, shells which can be found along the Thames and how they were deposited, beer mugs, Henry VIII favorite palace, whales which have ventured upriver, the death and rebirth of the river, how ancient pins were made, among a vast number of scientific and historical items of interest.

Now, while mudlarking a person walks slowly, leaning over and examining with curiosity and in detail everything with a speck of interest. It can be tiring and so it is for the reader. While there was much to interest the reader, this reader indeed found it could also be tiring.