Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #244269 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03-06
• Binding: Hardcover
• 320 pages

Synopsis
"Downstream" is a celebration of rivers: an exploration of what they mean to us and an account of what we owe to them. Tom Fort followed the course of our third largest, and one of our least known rivers from source to the sea - the River Trent. Travelling partly on foot and bicycle, but chiefly in a plywood fifteen foot punt, Fort journeyed through the unsung heart of Middle England, showing him the unseen face of his own country. His journey taught him about the land and moving water, its mysteries and magic. Rivers are special to us and the landscape we inhabit. They shape and define our world. They give us power and nourishment. They were the first highways, routes for conquest and flight. They acted as barriers and connections. they stir the imagination and reach into our souls. This is an exploration into the historical, geographical, social, cultural and industrial aspects of a river filled with the curiosities, forgotten characters and departed ways.

Customer Reviews

A gentle meander across England
This is a delightfully bitty book. Fort paddles his way in a punt across the middle of England (NOT "Middle" England) - or he mostly does (he took to his bike for the last bit)- following the ex-industrial River Trent from source to end.

I must shamefully confess that before reading this book I didn't know where the Trent was (though I was born and brought up with a couple of miles of the Trent and Mersey canal, albeit the other end). Basically it goes left to right across England, looping up and down quite a lot, and the book loops with it, dipping in and out of local history, ruminations on changing times, and accounts of some daunting (and dauntingly batty) local characters. In following it, Fort conjures up - in particular - the course of the Industrial Revolution, the Civil War, the lives of the (mostly spendthrift, it seems) squirearchy and - although he is restrained about this - his own love of fishing.

Just fun to read, basically. (And I would have given it 5 stars not 4 if he'd stayed in the boat the whole way.)