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Bradt Guide River Thames
Ref: BRA062
From architects to authors, statesmen to sportsmen, the River Thames has proved an enduring source of inspiration for some of the towering figures of Britain’s past and present. It has also borne silent witness to the scandals, intrigues, tragedies and triumphs played out along its route. Take a stroll with the author through the riverside landscape – stopping at inviting pubs, drenched in history – as he follows the Thames path in the frequently turbulent wake of the famous and infamous.
STAND on the very spots where:
· Shakespeare came to worship
· Queen Elizabeth II ate treacle tart
· George III has his ears boxed
VISIT the pubs where:
· Charles Dickens enjoyed whitebait suppers
· Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton fought with sausage rolls
· ‘Rule Britannia’ was composed
FIND OUT where:
· Toad of Toad Hall lived
· Pirates were hanged in chains
· Nelson came for nooky and fishing
· William Wallace had his head impaled
· Dandies ‘rolled’ their ladies
· Henry VIII was pushed into a pool
· Alice’s wonderland was born
Book Reviews
"Informed, amusing, usefully detailed and containinga welcome breadth of knowledge, this is a first-rate walker's guide to one of the world's noble rivers."
-- San Fransico Chronicle
Author's Note, by Paul Goldsack
You can walk it. You can pedal it, paddle it, motorboat it, or sail it. You can reach it by bus, by train, by car. You could, I suppose, even swim it from top to bottom – and someone probably has.
‘It’, of course, is the Thames, the wonderful, historic, beautiful River Thames. I have sailed the lower tidal reaches in majestic Thames sailing barges. I have paddled the middle and upper reaches by skiff and canoe. I’ve walked it, every single inch of the 180-mile (288km) Thames Path, and a good deal more if you chuck in all the riverside villages and towns and byways I have meandered through.
I have explored it not just on foot and by boat, but by car, by bus and by train, for it is a river most well (and often conveniently) served by roads and public transport. The exception, of course, is the silk-green water of the upper stripling Thames where, wonderfully, there are no roads and few dwellings close to the river --here there are little more than willow trees and buttercup meadows, where cows laze ankle deep in summer grasses and all that solitary wanderers hear is the hum of bees and the chirping of grasshoppers – but it is enough.
The Thames Path provides a wonderful opportunity for long walking or biking adventure from the Thames Barrier to the source, or, if you prefer to travel the other way round, from source to Barrier. Ideally, if you ever have the opportunity, then make the journey by boat, slowly, from the tidal waters of the ‘London River’ to the infant Thames and the more-or-less end of river navigation at Lechlade’s Ha’penny Bridge. If you’d rather, of course, there is nothing to stop you and yours exploring the river’s banks and villages and towns in smaller nibbles, arriving by car or public transport in order to ‘do’ the Thames and its path bit by bit, day’s-out style.
This book is for walkers or bikers or boaters who yearn to discover something new and beautiful and fascinating. Or for armchair travellers in search of history.
The Thames is a magnificent river, a ‘noble’ one of incredible history. You will be amazed, as I was, at how many of history’s ‘greats’ have left their footprints on the banks of the Thames … and the splendid reminders of England’s yesterdays they have left behind them.
Paul Goldsack is a former paratrooper who has spent much of his life adventuring on sailing boats, on bicycles and on foot in various parts of the world. He is now a journalist, and lives on a Dutch sailing barge.
£10.95
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