Estuary

The Thames Estuary is one of the world's great deltas, providing passage in and out of London for millennia. It is silted up with the memories and artefacts of past voyages. It is the habitat for an astonishing range of wildlife. And for the people who live and work on the estuary, it is a way of life unlike any other - one most would not trade for anything, despites its many dangers.

Rachel Lichtenstein has travelled its length and breadth many times. Here she gathers these experiences in an extraordinary chorus of voices: mudlarkers and fishermen, radio pirates and champion racers, the men who risk their lives out on the water and the women who wait on the shore. Estuary is a thoughtful and intimate portrait of this profoundly British place, both the community and the environment, examining how each has shaped and continues to shape the other.

Rachel Lichtenstein is the author of Rodinsky's Room, which she co-authored with Iain Sinclair, Rodinsky's Whitechapel, Keeping Pace: Older Women of the East End, A Little Dust Whispered, On Brick Lane, and Diamond Street: The Hidden World of Hatton Garden. She trained as a sculptor, and has exhibited her work in several British and international venues, including the Whitechapel Gallery, the Barbican, the British Library, Woodstreet Galleries in Pittsburgh, and the Jerusalem Theatre in Israel. From 2002 to 2004, she was the British Library's first Pearson Creative Research Fellow.