Mudlark River: Down the Thames with a Victorian Map

by Simon Wilcox

The discovery of a Victorian map in a London antiques shop takes Simon Wilcox on a journey down the Thames: his mission like that of those Victorian river scavengers, the mudlarks, to forage about on the shoreline for something of value. The mudlarks found old coins, and objects washed up from ships anchored in the London docks. Tramping down the Thames Path, catching the occasional boat, Simon finds fragments of history lurking just below the surface of the modern waterway. As the trip progresses from the river’s source all the way to the sea, this history becomes more varied and colourful. Not only does Simon follow the life and times of the London cartographer who drew up the map – Edward Weller – but he also uncovers the stories of refugees and exiles washed up on the river banks over the centuries, and of drifters and conscripts heading in the other direction, leaving the river for foreign shores. In the process, he unearths a river that is both national and international, both local and global. But can he track down something of true value? Flush out something like the casket of Oriental pearls the mudlarks always dreamt of finding? As the journey unfolds, the river begins to reveal its secrets.

364 pages, Paperback

First published October 15, 2014

About the author

Simon Wilcox worked as a journalist for magazines and newspapers in the UK and Singapore, popped up as a reporter on BBC local radio and went all digital for a while as a website editor for an NGO before finally deciding to sit down in the quiet solitude of his study to write a book or two. He is based in Warwickshire, England.

Reviews

[Sarah Coller · Rating 2 out of 5]

Finally! Oh my goodness… I'm finally done.

This book is the biggest crazy ramble I've read in a really long time --- maybe the ramblingest ever.

If you are even considering the torture of reading through this book, there are a couple things you need to know. First, this book is NOT about mudlarking. As this is a subject I'm super interested in, I put this on my wishlist and started it right away when my husband gifted it to me a week or so ago. I soon learned it's more a history of the Thames and ultimately found that the book only contains 3-4 pages that even mention mudlarking. This assumption was my own fault though, as the author merely called it by a nickname and did clarify in the subtitle, Down the Thames with a Victorian Map. Since I love anything that has to do with London and its surrounds, I was totally ok with this.

Secondly, you should know that this could not have possibly been edited by a professional. Warning: if you are a natural editor, avoid this like it's 1666. I found myself obsessively line editing for the first third and then begging for mercy the last two. The author is obviously a decent writer and clearly put a ton of time, money, and research into this work. What a shame that he settled for a lousy editor. There was so much repeated information (yes, we know William Morris lived with Edward so-and-so across from Weller at the Red Lion Square. We know Rosetti was a pre-Raphaelite artist. You've said that. You've said that. You've said that.) Some lines were missing spaces between multiple words soitallreadsreallyannoyinglylikethis. There's a beautiful quote near the beginning about nutmeg rocks. By the third time it was used, I threw my book down in disgust. Why are you wrecking this beautiful word picture??!!

The book is jam packed full of so many random facts that dead end where the paragraph ends. It's frustrating because I don't want to say, "Well, that's what you get with self-publishing…" I have self-published works in the past and I think many of them can be very well done. However, the one thing you should never scrimp on, unless you are one yourself, is a professional editor. All this lovely experience and research is marred by the fact that this book is nearly unreadable.

[Rae · Rating 3 out of 5]

Edward Weller. Cartography. Rambling. Social history. Lots of trivia.

[Meganbee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read as project resource

[Chip Carman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great idea but really boring