Lara Maiklem

Lara Maiklem (born 1971) is a British author, editor and publishing consultant, known for her writing and speaking on mudlarking (scavenging on the foreshore for objects of historic interest).


Personal

Maiklem was born in 1971 on a dairy farm in Surrey, 30 miles from Central London. Her father's family have been farmers for at least 400 years. Her mother's family are from London, until the early 20th century they worked as shipbuilders on the Thames and lived in the East End. She earned a degree in Sociology and Social Anthropology from Newcastle University in 1993. She lived in London for 25 years and now lives on the Kent coast with her partner and two children. She is licensed to mudlark on the River Thames by the Port of London Authority and has been searching the foreshore in her spare time for over 15 years.

Career

Her first job after graduating was as a bookseller with Waterstones. In 1994 she began work at Dorling Kindersley and has worked in publishing ever since. In 2012 she collaborated with the rock band KISS to produce the KISS Monster Book, which was shortlisted for Illustrated Book of the Year at the British Book Awards. She currently works as a writer, freelance editor, copywriter and publishing consultant. In 2012 Maiklem began the London Mudlark Facebook page in 2012 as a place to share her finds online and to open the hobby up to a wider audience. It was the first time anyone had shared their finds on social media.

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. It received wide critical acclaim from, amongst others, The Sunday Times, The Times, The Observer, The Guardian, The Times Literary Supplement, Literary Review, the Daily Mail, the Daily Express, The Spectator, The Economist, Current Archeology, The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, The New Yorker, Maclean's, The Australian and Sydney Morning Herald. Mudlarking appeared in a cartoon by Nick Newman in Private Eye.

The Guardian called it "A fascinating insight into the discarded objects and lost things that wash up on the foreshore".[1]

The Daily Telegraph considered her description of the fog to be "worthy of Dickens or Joseph Conrad".[2]

Literary Review described it as "A lovely, lyrical, gently meandering book, filled with fascinating diversions and detail".[3]

The Wall Street Journal "A riveting crash course not only in the history of London from prehistoric times to the present, but also in urban geography and how to read a living environment from organic clues".[4]

Ian Mortimer said of the book: "Whoever buys it is blessed. I love the fact that [Maiklem] makes herself the centre of this huge, timeless, endless story that reaches from the distant past and flows past all our consciousnesses out to a place far beyond the reach of the estuary. Lara is such a natural writer; every page just tingles with her imagination. It is a love letter to life itself."


The Financial Times and The Guardian tipped Mudlarking as a 'Book to Read in 2019' in January 2019. 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.


Maiklem has made numerous radio and television appearances on the BBC, Channel 4, Channel 5, The Travel Channel, BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 5, Scala Radio, Monocle Radio, ABC (Australia) and NPR (US). She has collaborated on podcasts with Spectator Magazine, BBC History Magazine, The Economist, the National Maritime Museum, Talking Tudors, Dan Snow's History Hits, Preservecast and Living History. Maiklem did a TED Talk in October 2019[5] and a Google Talk in September 2019.[6] She wrote a short series about mudlarking for BBC Radio 3, has written articles for the Guardian,[7] the Telegraph, the Financial Times and The Spectator[8] and regularly speaks 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

References
  1. Wilson, Frances (16 August 2019). "Mudlarking by Lara Maiklem review – lost and found on the River Thames". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
  2. Lewis, Roger (5 August 2019). "Mudlarking: Lost and Found on the River Thames by Lara Maiklem, review: the swirling mess of underwater history". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
  3. "Neil Armstrong - A Real Muck Raker". Literary Review. Retrieved 2020-01-10.
  4. Lowry, Elizabeth. "'Mudlark' Review: The Stories the River Can Tell". WSJ. Retrieved 2020-01-10.
  5. Mudlarking: Lost And Found On The River Thames | Lara Maiklem | TEDxNewcastle, retrieved 2020-01-10
  6. Lara Maiklem: "Mudlarking: Lost and Found on the River Thames" | Talks at Google, retrieved 2020-01-10
  7. Maiklem, Lara (2016-09-14). "London's history in mud: the woman collecting what the Thames washes up". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2020-01-10.
  8. "A river of lost souls: the extraordinary secrets of the Thames". The Spectator. 2019-12-14. Retrieved 2020-01-10.
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