Thames

Sacred River, Volume 1: The Mirror of History

By: Peter Ackroyd

Narrated by: Simon Callow

Length: 3 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

The Thames has been a highway, a frontier, and an attack route; it has been a playground and a sewer, a source of water, and a source of power. Every stretch has its own character, atmosphere, and stories. Thames: Sacred River explores the river from source to sea. Peter Ackroyd, best-selling author of London: The Biography, tells the story of the river and the people who have lived on and by it over the centuries.

In part one, The Mirror of History, he explores the river's geology, early history, and mythology with fascinating facts and anecdotes.

© Peter Ackroyd; (P) Random House

Pure Ackroyd, pure Thames

It's Peter Ackroyd. If you don't know what that means, it means a jumble of fascinating nuggets of information, arranged into only the slightest semblance of a structure. But the nuggets are wonderful nuggets and the Thames is the most fascinating of subjects. And Simon Callow has the perfect voice for this kind of thing, genial and mellifluous. Listening to this audiobook is like sitting by a fireside in comfortable antique armchair while Ackroyd smokes his pipe and regales you with wisdom. Just what the doctor ordered.

Not great

I usually like this sort of thing. By that, I mean books on a single historical topic. I really enjoyed SALT, The Professor and the Madman, and Mauve. However I found the first volume of this pretty uninspiring and dull. I would have thought there would be many more fascinating stories about the early history of the Thames than were revealed in this book. It is also quite expensive and would have cost 3 credits to get the whole book. I decided not to spring for the other two volumes.