England has many rivers, all home to amazing creatures like otters and kingfishers. The River Severn is the longest in England. At 220 miles, it begins in a peat bog in Wales and ends in the Bristol Channel, running through several counties, and has the second highest tidal wave worldwide.
The Flow is a short-listed writer’s journey along the rivers, waters and wildness of Britain. Called ‘simply beautiful’ by nature writer Stephen Ross, Amy visits a rapid where she lost a cherished friend, and unexpected reignites a love of rivers, and a journey of natural, cultural and emotional history. In 2023, her beloved friend Kate set out with others to kayak the River Rawthey (Cumbria). But she never returned, and her death left her family and friends unmoored.
Visiting years later, her journey turns into a book about water that meanders and cascades through lives, landscapes and stories. From West Country torrents to Levels and Fens, from rocky Welsh canyons to the salmon highways of Scotland – through to the chalk rivers of the Yorkshire Wolds, Amy-Jane follows springs, streams and rivers to explore tributary themes of wildness and wonder, loss and healing, mythology and history. Threading together places and voices, this is a profound exploration of our place in nature.
Dr Amy-Jane beer is a biologist turned naturalist and writer. She has worked for over 20 years as a science writer, contributing to over 40 books on natural history and is a columnist for British Wildlife and BBC Wildlife magazine. She campaigns for nature and conservation and works with enviornmental art charity New Networks for Nature and Right to Roam, and is honorary president of the Friends of the Dales.
life on the River Thames
This is England’s longest river, but not only in London. In the city it was heavily polluted and Parliament would have to regularly close down due to the stench. Today it’s much cleaner with many mudlarking for history of its past (using tide times for safety, just like for the sea).
Life on the Thames is an illustrated journey along a river that sustains a staggering number of birds, mammals and other creatures. Learn about them, as you progress from the source to estuary.
From Source to Sea recounts the author’s 215-walk along the entire length of the River Thames from the Cotswolds to the North Sea. Join Tom for an illuminating stroll past meadows, churches and palaces, country and council estates, factories and dockyards, meeting a host of interesting characters along the way.
