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andipants 's review for:
Mudlark: In Search of London's Past Along the River Thames
by Lara Maiklem
There were a lot of neat little tidbits here, and it was definitely interesting to hear how Maiklem sort of fell into mudlarking as a hobby and obsession; her voice comes through very well and she sounds very relatable, especially to someone like me, who loves imagining the past lives of the places and things around me. I can certainly feel the wonder of finding some long-lost everyday object and imagining the person who would have used it in Roman times, or Tudor times, or Victorian times, or whenever.
My biggest complaint is that I would have liked to see more of the actual history of the things she finds; she'll give little bits here and there, but the most in-depth she ever goes is with her own imaginings. We don't get a lot of the research it seems like she does on at least some pieces, and I would have liked more of that. I also would have loved some pictures. This could easily be a coffee-table book with big pictures of the pieces she's found and period drawings showing what they looked like whole or how they would have been used, and it would have been a great help because I definitely found myself often wanting to stop and Google what things looked like (or occasionally even what they were; whether it's a British-American language barrier or just lack of historical knowledge on my part, I sometimes had no idea).
All that said, this was definitely an enjoyable read. If you're someone like me who enjoys daydreaming about what the things around you would have been like in generations past, you'll probably find something here to appreciate.
My biggest complaint is that I would have liked to see more of the actual history of the things she finds; she'll give little bits here and there, but the most in-depth she ever goes is with her own imaginings. We don't get a lot of the research it seems like she does on at least some pieces, and I would have liked more of that. I also would have loved some pictures. This could easily be a coffee-table book with big pictures of the pieces she's found and period drawings showing what they looked like whole or how they would have been used, and it would have been a great help because I definitely found myself often wanting to stop and Google what things looked like (or occasionally even what they were; whether it's a British-American language barrier or just lack of historical knowledge on my part, I sometimes had no idea).
All that said, this was definitely an enjoyable read. If you're someone like me who enjoys daydreaming about what the things around you would have been like in generations past, you'll probably find something here to appreciate.