Lara Maiklem

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Lara Maiklem (born 1971)^[1] is a British author, editor and publishing consultant, known for her writing and speaking on mudlarking.

Early and Personal Life[]

Maiklem grew up on a dairy farm in Surrey. She had little interest in history during her school days, describing it as just ‘facts and dates, kings and queens.’ She read sociology and social anthropology at Newcastle University before moving to London where she worked in publishing, first for Dorling Kindersley and later as a freelance. She now lives with her wife, Sarah, and children in Kent.^[2]

Interest in Mudlarking[]

During her childhood Maiklem was fascinated by the fragments of Victorian china, glass bottle stoppers and clay pipe stems she found in the garden of the family’s farm.^[3] Later, after moving to London, she began to mudlark on the tidal banks of the River Thames at Greenwich. There she scavenged for clay pipes, Victorian shoe buckles and Roman brooches. One of Maiklem’s most treasured discoveries is a wooden fid, a conical tool ‘used by sailors, riggers and rope-makers to creates spaces through which the rope could be woven together or ‘spliced.’^[4]

Mudlarking: Lost and Found on the River Thames[]

In August 2019, Maiklem's first book Mudlarking: Lost and Found on the River Thames was published by Bloomsbury in the UK, Australia and New Zealand and under the title Mudlark: Searching for London's Past Along the River Thames by Liveright in the US and Canada. "Mudlarking" appeared in a cartoon by Nick Newman in Private Eye.^{[citation needed]}

The Guardian called it "A fascinating insight into the discarded objects and lost things that wash up on the foreshore".^[5] The Daily Telegraph considered her description of the fog to be "worthy of Dickens or Joseph Conrad".^[6] Literary Review described it as "A lovely, lyrical, gently meandering book, filled with fascinating diversions and detail".^[7]

On publication it became a Sunday Times Bestseller and was a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week in August 2019. Mudlarking was Book of the Month at Foyles, an Observer Book of the Year 2019, a Daily Express Greatest Read 2019 and an Apple Books pick for 2019. Mudlarking won the 2020 Indie Award for Non Fiction.^{[citation needed]}

Maiklem has made radio and television appearances. Maiklem did a TED Talk in October 2019^[8] and a Google Talk in September 2019.^[9] She wrote a short series about mudlarking for BBC Radio 3, has written articles for the Guardian,^[10] the Telegraph, the Financial Times and The Spectator^[11] and has spoken on mudlarking at private events and festivals.

Publications[]

• (2019) Mudlarking: Lost and Found on the River Thames, Bloomsbury (UK, Aus and NZ edition) ISBN: 978-1408889213
• (2019) Mudlark: In Search of London's Past Along the River Thames, Liveright (US and CAN edition) ISBN: 978-1631494963

External links[]

• Facebook

References[]