Books

10 books featuring the majestic river Thames

Thames is the second largest river in England and is well known for both it’s geographical importance and it’s tourist attraction.

The famous river has also been a source of inspiration for artists, poets, writers of all sorts for centuries. Including some famous works like Oliver Twist, Sherlock Holmes and Alice in wonderland. Given below are the top 10 books which feature the majestic river Thames in them.

  1. Thames: Sacred river by Peter Ackroyd
    It’s a perfectly composed biography of the River. Starting from the prehistoric times to the modern era. The book is known to be as glorious as the river itself, it’s packed with tidbits and facts which tell the reader all about it’s religious, cultural, geographical, historical, literary connections and links.
  2. Three men in a boat by Jerome K Jerome
    It’s a classic comic book based around the time when commercial shipping traffic vanished from upper Thames. The river became a leisure spot for Jerome, his two friends and their dog Montmorency, there they splashed the worries and stresses of London life in the river.
  3. The true heart by Sylvia Townsend Warner
    It is a love story revolving around two characters, Sukey Bond and Eric Seaborn. It’s set in 1873 out on the Essex marshes, where the Thames merges with the sea. Sukey Bond is an orphan who works as a servant girl on a farm in the Essex Marshes. There she meets Eric Seaborn and falls in love. Seaborn a gentle, simple, a ‘holy fool.’ The two are parted due to unfortunate circumstances and they seek out to Queen Victoria who’s the only person who can help. Extraordinary things happen on the journey and the simple love story comes to a happy ending.
  4. The wind in the willows by Kenneth Grahame
    This book doesn’t require any sort of introduction, the famous misadventures of Mole and Ratty. The story begins with  a series of letters from Kenneth Grahame to his son and has alot to say about the river and the 19th-century expansion of London that changed the surrounding countryside forever.
  5. The house by the Thames by Gillian Tindall
    A non fictional historical biography of a house across river Thames and St Paul’s cathedral from the windows of which people watched ferrymen carrying Londoners and the great fire. The eyes has seen it all over the course of 450 years.
  6. Great expectations by Charles Dickens
    The book needs no introductions. In Charles Dickens best selling work an orphaned Pip is trained to do the dirty work of the forge yet dreams to be a gentleman one day. Under sudden circumstances he finds himself possessing great expectations. The book is based in “Hoo penisula” which is the least mentioned part of Thames. It’s based in a graveyard near Hoo where Pip encounters the convict Magwitch, little does he know how the encounter changes his entire course of life.
  7. Downstream: A history and celebration of swimming the River Thames by Caitlin Davies
    This book is a compilation of the water’s significance over the years. From kings bathing in it to children splashing, wild swimmers to international athletes. The book takes us back to the Victorian era where river racing and the launch of the long distance amateur championship of Great Britain came into existence.
  8. The mirror of the sea by Joseph Conrad
    First published in 1906, the author Joseph Conrad was in the merchant navy before becoming an author. In his book he wrote essays narrating his time on the tides of Thames in late 19th century.
  9. News from nowhere by William Morris
    Published in 1890. News from nowhere is William Morris’s best work. The strange science fiction story is narrated by the protagonist, William Guest who falls asleep in late 19th century and wakes up in future where the society has been accustomed to abide by communist lines. He along with a group of comrades row up on Thames to see the new world.
  10. Wide open by Nicola Barker
    The novel from 1998 is set up on the Isle of Sheppey in the Thames estuary and claims the place to be rather peculiar. The book with it’s eccentric characters and marshy islands is full of surprises.

 

 

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