Silt Road
The Story of a Lost River
Published on 4. April 2013
Book
Hardback
288 pages
978-0-7011-8643-2 (ISBN)
Description
At the foot of a chalk hill a stream rises in a silent copse, and is soon lost under the car parks and streets of the town its waters once gave life to. Captivated by the fate of this forgotten stream Charles Rangeley-Wilson sets out one winter's day to uncover its story.
Distilled into the timeless passage of the river's flow, buried under the pavements that cover meadow, marsh and hill he finds dreamers and visionaries, a chronicle of paradises lost or never found, men who shaped the land and its history: the Jacobean maverick with an Arcadian irrigation dream, the sanitary inspector planning social emancipation, the libertine aristocrat who drew naked women in ornate lakes and flower beds. In Silt Road miller's riot, chairmakers die of fever, men dream of fish.
In this moving elegy to a disappearing natural world Charles Rangeley-Wilson brings the history of the English landscape vividly to life.
Distilled into the timeless passage of the river's flow, buried under the pavements that cover meadow, marsh and hill he finds dreamers and visionaries, a chronicle of paradises lost or never found, men who shaped the land and its history: the Jacobean maverick with an Arcadian irrigation dream, the sanitary inspector planning social emancipation, the libertine aristocrat who drew naked women in ornate lakes and flower beds. In Silt Road miller's riot, chairmakers die of fever, men dream of fish.
In this moving elegy to a disappearing natural world Charles Rangeley-Wilson brings the history of the English landscape vividly to life.
Reviews / Votes
A rich dowsing-out of a lost river and its stories; a passionate pursuit of landscape ghosts. -- Robert MacFarlane A work of extraordinary power and resonance -- Melissa Harrison * Financial Times * Passionate, persuasive and personal...it is an elegy to a fascinating world of which many of us have lost sight -- Anthony Sattin * Sunday Times * Superb book... Its story is an acute example of the criminal disregard our nation has had for these remarkable rivers -- Mark Lloyd * BBC Countryfile * Silt Road is that rare ting: a book that is able to marry exacting research with imaginative fluency, told in language as pliant and revealing as water * Earthlines *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Vintage Publishing
Target group
Professional and scholarly
College/higher education
Illustrations
approx 35 integrated b/w
Dimensions
Height: 222 mm
Width: 143 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
460 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7011-8643-2 (9780701186432)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Charles Rangeley-Wilson is an award-winning writer. He is a passionate conservationist, founder of the Wild Trout Trust and the Norfolk Rivers Trust and advisor to WWF on English chalk streams. He is the author of two books of travel and fishing writing, Somewhere Else and The Accidental Angler, which was also televised by the BBC. His other work for BBC includes the critically acclaimed film Fish! A Japanese Obsession. He lives in Norfolk with his wife and two children.