LONDON: Amersham Arms

Thursday 24th March, 2022

6:30pm

Event information

Reweirding London: Authors on the Unknown City

Join us for an evening of short films and talks where we reweird London.

Short films on London from Video Strolls.

Lara Maiklem - Mudlarking: Lost and Found on the River Thames

Mudlark (/’mAdla;k/) noun A person who scavenges for usable debris in the mud of a river or harbour

Lara 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, what Lara calls ‘the longest archaeological site in the world’.

Lara Maiklem moved from her family’s farm to London in the 1990s and has been mudlarking along the River Thames for over fifteen years. Known as the ‘London Mudlark’, she has a combined social media audience of over 83,000 followers and has been featured in the Guardian and on BBC News, BBC World Service and BBC Radio 3. She now lives with her family on the Kent coast within easy reach of the river, which she visits as regularly as the tides permit. She is the author of Mudlarking: Lost and Found on the River Thames and A Field Guide to Larking. Both will be available on the night from The Word bookshop.

Tom Chivers - London Clay: Journeys in the Deep City

'A beguiling mix of history, geology, folklore and memoir that captivated me from the first page.' Lara Maiklem, author of Mudlarking

What secrets lie beneath a city?

Tom Chivers follows hidden pathways, explores lost islands and uncovers the geological mysteries that burst up through the pavement and bubble to the surface of our streets. From Roman ruins to a submerged playhouse, from an abandoned Tube station to underground rivers, Chivers leads us on a journey into the depths of the city he loves.

A lyrical interrogation of a capital city, a landscape and our connection to place, London Clay celebrates urban edgelands: in-between spaces where the natural world and the metropolis collide. Through a combination of historical research, vivid reportage and personal memoir, it will transform how you see London, and cities everywhere.

Caitlin Davies - Queens of the Underworld: A Journey into the Lives of Female Crooks

'This book is an extremely important part of women's social history. Read it!' - Maxine Peake

Robin Hood, Dick Turpin, Ronnie Biggs, the Krays … All have become folk heroes, glamorised and romanticised, even when they killed. But where are their female equivalents? Where are the street robbers, gang leaders, diamond thieves, gold smugglers and bank robbers?

Queens of the Underworld reveals the incredible story of female crooks from the seventeenth century to the present. From Moll Cutpurse to the Black Boy Alley Ladies, from jewel thief Emily Lawrence to bandit leader Elsie Carey and burglar Zoe Progl, these were charismatic women at the top of their game. But female criminals have long been dismissed as either not ‘real women’ or not ‘real criminals’, and in the process their stories have been lost.

Caitlin Davies unravels the myths, confronts the lies and tracks down modern-day descendants in order to tell the truth about their lives for the first time. Caitlin Davies was born in London in 1964. Her non-fiction books include Taking the Waters: A Swim Around Hampstead Heath, Downstream: a history and celebration of swimming the River Thames, and Bad Girls: The Rebels and Renegades of Holloway Prison, which was longlisted for the 2019 Orwell Prize for Political Writing.

Caitlin's latest book is Queens of the Underworld, a journey into the lives of female crooks from the 17th century to today, will be available on the night from the Word Bookshop.