Thames: Sacred River

I am glad I didn't buy this new but second hand as it wont be remaining. My heart began to sink when the writer claimed that the industrial revolution only reached the Thames after the First World War. Utter nonsense as chemical industries existed in both Southwark and the East Wnd before then [e.g Brunner Mond's works at Silvertown,built in 1893, which was converted into a Munitions factory which exploded in 1917 laying waste a large area]. The Thames Iron Works was founded in 1837 and as well as building warships provided iron work for bridges built by Brunel. At Millwall of course there was another Iron Works which built the Great Eastern as well as a chemical works built in 1824.Basically the book is a romanticised account of the rural & 'posh' stretches of the river with a minimal nod at it's economic role.

This is an odd and frustrating book; I found it really hard to read it through to the end. His book on the Thames is neither a linear journey through time nor one through space; rather, like his `biography' of London, it is a series of short essays on various themes. His work mirrors what he writes of Camden's narrative: "It is an encyclopedia, a compendium and an anthology rather than a topography, but it has one clear theme - the Thames is the great unifying force which encompasses everything." (The book does end, however, with a long gazetteerial appendix, "An Alternative Topography, from Source to Sea".)Ackroyd describes the Thames as "the shortest river in the world to acquire such a famous history". But much of what he has to say about the river's symbolism and essence can be translated to rivers the world over. Reading Ackroyd's pages, where he alludes to ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia and to ancient Greek myths and Rome, just led me to feel that he should get out more!So, is there nothing good about this book? Well, there is always Ackroyd's occasional literary gem to be found amongst the river's tidal mudflats. Every chapter, sometimes every page - on occasions even every paragraph - possesses a worthy quote, a golden sentence on which to ponder. For instance, Ackroyd describes the results of geological processes as "ribbons in the hair of Gaia." And on the subject of Thames rain: "There is something soothing about water falling within water. To look at rain falling into the river is like watching flames within a general fire; it is the delectation of observing an elemental force mingling with itself."We move from literary treasure to fantastic fact or a new and hitherto unthought-of twist on some fact. But much lies in that slippery region between fact and feeling. For instance, does the Thames cross the prime meridian three times at Blackwall? Well, only if you keep your course to the extreme shoreline, first one side, then the other. And if the great Western railway had reached Reading from Paddington by 1840, as Ackroyd states, then the crossing at Richmond in 1848 could not be the first railway bridge over the Thames. (As an aside, `Steam & Speed' is one of Ackroyd's more interesting chapters, the author remarking on how the progress of the railway led to places like Abingdon and Reading becoming railway- rather than river-towns.)Derivations of place-names are notoriously slippery and best left to the experts. (Methinks he has the cart before the horse, for example, when he writes of places named St Anne's Well being a corruption of "the ancient goddess Tan", whoever she might be.) But other cod derivations abound throughout the book, and especially in the appendix. And what are we to make of Ackroyd's assertion that, "There is no reason to doubt that human consciousness is changed by the experience of living above clay, rather than above chalk"?Sometimes banal statements are made, statements that are hedged with so much ambiguity that their veracity can never be tested: "The Thames itself has always been considered holy." And sometimes evidence is gathered to add solemnity to fancy, such as that the atavistic baptismal quality of the river is supported by there being "at least three churches dedicated to St John the Baptist along the course of the river." To which I can only reply, "Only three?"Many of the chapters are merely expanded lists. Chapter thirteen, for example, is called `Hail Holy River, Mother of Grace' where Ackroyd provides a "litany of names and places" suggesting "that there is more than a coincidence at work in the association of the Virgin and the Thames." He goes on to note that this has never been noticed before in apparent ignorance of the fact that the saint with the most dedications in Britain is St Mary.One could and can view each chapter as a synthesis of lists and superficial flotsam, a showpiece of words parading as erudition with fanciful and ludicrous conclusions drawn from a fanciful and naïve - or deliberately false? - reading of the evidence. Take a typical prosaic statement: "They carried most goods upon their backs, since the rough surfaces of the quays and nearby streets were not suitable for wagons." Quays and streets are constructed to be unusable to wheeled transport? There are other examples where false conclusions are drawn or other evidence overlooked. I concluded that Ackroyd is like a modern-day Douglas Chellow (see page 184), conveying "his love of the river to anyone who would listen".But one sometimes wonders whether Ackroyd is having a joke on us, tongue firmly placed in cheek. Such times are usually signalled by a phrase like "This may not be true." A wry smile certainly crossed my face at Ackroyd's assertion that an organised journey in 1555 from Abingdon to Oxford to see the burning of bishops at the stake "is one of the first recorded instances of the `pleasure trip' on the river."The book does come with three excellent opening maps of the Thames valley, demonstrating the wide variety of geographical forms that the river and its tributaries take from source to sea. But Ackroyd makes no use of these: the map makes manifest far more clearly the different drainage patterns above and below the Goring gap than the author's own words to illustrate the geological division.Ackroyd himself is often absent from his book. There is little personal comment, despite growing up and living by the river for most of his life. It's not until the acknowledgements at the book's end that we read that Ackroyd walked the whole length of the Thames. Perhaps a narrative about his adventures along the way would have been more entertaining than this - admittedly detailed and all-encompassing - but ultimately dry and fanciful potted collection.The book comes with an eight-page bibliography. Another plus point of the book is its excellent and extensive index.

This is one I ordered for my friend and it looks very interesting. She collected it on Saturday so for the moment I will dip into I never knew that about the Thames. With many thanks. .

I wanted to find out all the 'stories', and I have!

Ackroyd is clearly in love with the river as much as he is with London, and writes poetically, fantastically and having done a great amount of reading first

V good. Arrived on time.

All you want and more about Thames. Inspiring

looks a great read