The Frozen Thames

In its long history, the river Thames has frozen solid forty times. These are the stories of that frozen river.

Helen Humphreys creates a brief vignette for each of these occurrences. The river is the central character woven into stories over a seven century timeline. The stories are based on actual events. In

1142 Queen Matilda is forced to flee her besieged castle across the frozen Thames in a snowstorm.  Some years Frost Fairs were held; entire villages were erected on the ice complete with coffee houses and taverns and even a printing press where a person could get a card with their name printed on it as a souvenir of their visit to the frozen river. Lovers find each other on the ice during the plague years, one showing symptoms of the Black Death; nonetheless they embrace. Birds fall frozen from the skies and people bring them into their homes where they nest until clement weather returns. In 1809 a young man rescued 27 rooks, 90 larks, a pheasant and a buzzard hawk by holding them in his hands and breathing on them one by one.
The book itself is a charming little volume with lovely illustrations on glossy paper. I read it in the midst of the coldest Canadian winter I have experienced and the numbing cold Humphreys documents resonated with me. It is understated with not a wasted word and I found it to be a poignant and exquisite reading experience.