Frozen Thames by Helen Humphreys

I wanted to read this when it was first issued, but never got around to it. Recently, I picked it up and fell in love with it. I have no idea why it is non-fiction. The Thames froze 40 tims in recorded historoy and while that may be interesting in itself, Humphreys takes those forty frozen incidents and creates 40 corresponding vignettes that are touching, poetic and enchanting. Some of my favourites involve characters who are in more than one story. This is a delightful that I would share with anyone but especially with someone who likes historical fiction.

It also made me go back and re-read The Lost Garden. I'm waiting to read Coventry -- the story of Harriet, a widow. She stands on the roof of Coventry Cathedral as part of the nightly fire watch, when first the factories and then the church itself are set on fire in air attacks. In the ensuing chaos, Harriet and a young man have to find the way back to his home where he left his mother....

But back to the Frozen Thames: here is the blurb from the Publisher:
In its long history, the River Thames has frozen solid forty times. These are the stories of that frozen river.

And so opens one of the most breathtaking and original works being published this season. The Frozen Thames contains forty vignettes based on events that actually took place each time the river froze between 1142 and 1895. Like a photograph captures a moment, etching it forever on the consciousness, so does Humphreys’ achingly beautiful prose. She deftly draws us into these intimate moments, transporting us through time so that we believe ourselves observers of the events portrayed. Whether it’s Queen Matilda trying to escape her besieged castle in a snowstorm, or lovers meeting on the frozen river in the plague years; whether it’s a simple farmer persuading his oxen the ice is safe, or Queen Bess discovering the rare privacy afforded by the ice-covered Thames, the moments are fleeting and transformative for the characters — and for us, too.