Maiklem, Lara – The Bell Bookshop

A Mudlarking Year

Emma — Thu, 17 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF MUDLARKING

‘An absolute treasure trove of sound advice and historical detail’ Katherine May

‘A delightful and a profound meditation on the variety of human experience’ Ian Mortimer

‘Lara Maiklem is a phenomenon. She elevates trudging around in the mud to an epic gallivant through our past’ Dan Snow

For over two decades, Lara Maiklem has been scouring the banks of the tidal Thames looking for objects – lost or discarded – that tell forgotten stories. In this charming sequel to the bestselling Mudlarking, Lara widens her search beyond the river and reflects on life lived post-pandemic, reminding us that it’s possible to draw meaning in the most unlikely of places.

As she searches the foreshore through the changing seasons, she is at times aided by the gentle illumination of the falling winter sun or hindered by bright summer skies and lashing rain. Yet, by working in harmony with the unpredictable terrain, she finds solace in aligning with the elements and uncovering the treasures that are bestowed by the tide. From medieval pilgrim badges and Tudor love tokens, to Georgian wig curlers and Victorian pottery, each passing day unearths ordinary and extraordinary objects that tell the rich story of London’s past and its inhabitants.

A Mudlarking Year is a gentle ode to nature, history and the simple art of looking. Guided by Lara’s curiosity, warmth and wisdom, it is your invitation to discover hidden objects in the most overlooked part of the city, the secrets they reveal and the stories that are patiently waiting to be told.

A mudlarking year

Emma — Thu, 04 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

‘An absolute treasure trove of sound advice and historical detail’ Katherine May
‘A delightful and a profound meditation on the variety of human experience’ Ian Mortimer
‘Lara Maiklem is a phenomenon. She elevates trudging around in the mud to an epic gallivant through our past’ Dan Snow

A Field Guide to Larking

Emma — Thu, 19 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000

A Field Guide to Larking is a practical, interactive and inspiring guide to ‘larking’ from the bestselling author of Mudlarking. LARK (verb): to get out and about, to explore the world around us and to discover the little treasures hiding in plain sight.We think, of course, of mudlarking but there is also beachlarking, fieldlarking or even simply exploring your own home with fresh eyes.In this beautiful field guide, Lara teaches us how to lark for ourselves. There are maps and charts, tips and lists, and colour illustrations throughout to help identify finds. From tide tables for mudlarkers to a flint guide for fieldlarkers, this book is richly informative and yet small enough to pop in a pocket. Like a journal it invites you to interact – to make notes and record finds along the way.If Lara Maiklem’s first book was a glimpse into a hidden world, with this field guide she shows us how we can discover it for ourselves.

Mudlarking

Emma — Thu, 05 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000

_______________WINNER OF THE INDIE BOOK AWARD FOR NON-FICTIONTHE TOP 2 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERA BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEKAN OBSERVER BOOK OF THE YEAR_______________Mudlark (/’mAdla;k/) noun A person who scavenges for usable debris in the mud of a river or harbourLara Maiklem has scoured the banks of the Thames for over fifteen years, in pursuit of the objects that the river unearths: from Neolithic flints to Roman hair pins, medieval buckles to Tudor buttons, Georgian clay pipes to Victorian toys. These objects tell her about London and its lost ways of life.Moving from the river’s tidal origins in the west of the city to the point where it meets the sea in the east, Mudlarking is a search for urban solitude and history on the River Thames, which Lara calls the longest archaeological site in England.As she has discovered, it is often the tiniest objects that tell the greatest stories._______________‘Enchanting’ – Sunday Times‘Driven by curiosity, freighted with mystery and tempered by chance, wonders gleam from every page’ – Melissa Harrison‘Brilliant. No one has looked at these odd corners since Sherlock Holmes’ – Sunday Telegraph‘The very best books that deal with the past are love letters to their subject, and the very best of those are about subjects that love their authors in return. Such books are very rare, but this is one’ – Ian Mortimer‘Fascinating. There is nothing that Maiklem does not know about the history of the river or the thingyness of things’ – Guardian‘A treasure. One of the best books I’ve read in years’ – Tracy Borman

Mudlark

Emma — Tue, 05 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Long heralded as a city treasure herself, expert “mudlarker” Lara Maiklem is uniquely trained in the art of seeking. Tirelessly trekking across miles of the Thames’ muddy shores, where others only see the detritus of city life, Maiklem unearths evidence of England’s captivating, if sometimes murky, history-with some objects dating back to 43 AD, when London was but an outpost of the Roman Empire. From medieval mail worn by warriors on English battlefields to nineteenth-century glass marbles mass-produced for the nation’s first soda bottles, Maiklem deduces the historical significance of these artifacts with the quirky enthusiasm and sharp-sightedness of a twenty-first century Sherlock Holmes.

Seamlessly interweaving reflections from her own life with meditations on the art of wandering, Maiklem ultimately delivers-for Anglophiles and history lovers alike-a memorable treatise on the objects we leave in our wake, and the stories they can reveal if only we take a moment to look.