In its long history, the river Thames has frozen solid forty times. These are the stories of that frozen river.
And so opens this breathtaking and original work of forty vignettes based on events that actually took place each time the river froze between 1142 and 1895. In breathtaking prose, acclaimed novelist Helen Humphreys deftly draws us into these intimate moments and transports us through time. Whether it's Queen Matilda trying to escape her besieged castle in a snowstorm, or lovers meeting on the frozen river in the plague years, or a simple farmer persuading his oxen that the ice is safe, Humphrey's achingly beautiful prose acts like a photograph, capturing a moment and etching it forever on our imaginations.
Stunningly designed and illustrated throughout with full-colour period art, The Frozen Thames is a genre-bending work from one of our most respected writers.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
February 3, 2014 -
Formats
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9781908526229
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9781908526229
- File size: 1260 KB
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Accessibility
No publisher statement provided -
Languages
- English
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Reviews
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January 26, 2009
Between 1142 and 1895, the Thames froze solid 40 times, and Humphreys (Wild Dogs
) captures the magic and hardship created by these deep freezes in a series of elegant vignettes. The book opens with Queen Matilda’s snow-cloaked escape across the frozen Thames from Oxford Castle, and subsequent snapshots capture everything from fox hunts to the merry Frost Fairs that set up on the solid river. The river is also witness to the Black Death, a window tax and a hearth tax, a crumbling London Bridge and the Luddite uprising. The elements are wonderfully evoked, with coldness so intense that birds fall frozen from the sky, ale freezes solid in its jugs, and trees split apart “as though struck by lightning.” In a style meditative and poetic, Humphreys crafts a compelling portrait of the role something as seemingly simple as ice has in people’s lives and imaginations.
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