THAMES - SACRED RIVER
Peter Ackroyd
978-0-701-17284-8; Chatto & Windus £25
There is River as Fact: 215 miles in length; bordering nine English counties; 134 bridges; a mean width of 1000 feet and depth of 30 feet. There is River as Metaphor: for continuity and eternity, life and death, a creator of civilisation – a source of water and of power – but also a sewer. Then there is River as History, and here Peter Ackroyd comes into his own, telling of tales from prehistoric beginnings to the present day. The author is well-known as the “biographer” of London, and he draws on this intimate knowledge of the city to bring us fascinating nuggets from the river’s banks, although by no means to the exclusion of all the other places along the route from Cirencester to Canvey Island.
Starting with the many possible derivations of the name itself, through the topography along the river’s length, with all its many tributaries, the book follows the course of the Thames. The chapters are short, of only a few pages each, so that one can dip into the book, choosing a location or topic from the index, for particular areas of interest. However, that may be to miss some gems: Mapledurham House, on which was based
Toad Hall of Wind in the Willows fame, was also the fictional home of Soames Forsyte; the Tate Gallery was formerly the Millbank penitentiary from whence the prisoners boarded the ships that would take them to Australia; the extempore Alice in Wonderland was composed on the river; and royal swans are unmarked, but a ‘nick’ on either side of the beak designates the swan as property of the Vintners’ Livery Company.
As afficiandos of his work will be aware, history is never dust-dry in Ackroyd’s hands, but by also including so many other aspects of the Thames – its impact on art and poetry, ghosts, nature, trade, criminals – and bringing things right up-to-date with the 2012 Olympics and Thames Gateway development, there are all sorts of people to whom this title would appeal. There are also numerous maps, pictures and photographs, and quotations from the various authors to have been influenced over the centuries. Above all, however, this is a book about the life-blood of London and its environs, told with a fluidity that perfectly mirrors the subject matter.