Longlisted for the James Cropper Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing 2023
A visit to the rapid where she lost a cherished friend unexpectedly reignites Amy-Jane Beer's love of rivers setting her on a journey of natural,cultural and emotional discovery.
On New Year's Day 2012,Amy-Jane Beer's beloved friend Kate set out with a group of others to kayak the River Rawthey in Cumbria. Kate never came home,and her death left her devoted family and friends bereft and unmoored. Returning to visit the Rawthey years later,Amy realises how much she misses the connection to the natural world she always felt when on or close to rivers,and so begins a new phase of exploration.
The Flow is a book about water,and,like water,it meanders,cascades and percolates through many lives,landscapes and stories. From West Country torrents to Levels and Fens,rocky Welsh canyons,the salmon highways of Scotland and the chalk rivers of the Yorkshire Wolds,Amy-Jane follows springs,streams and rivers to explore tributary themes of wildness and wonder,loss and healing,mythology and history,cyclicity and transformation.
Threading together places and voices from across Britain,The Flow is a profound,immersive exploration of our personal and ecological place in nature.
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLCISBN: 9781472977397Number of pages: 400Dimensions: 216 x 135 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
'The perfect commingling of deep research with sparkling observation and quiet eddies of feeling,helmed by a lifelong kayaker,biologist and all-round adventurous soul... small wonder The Flow is such a knockout. I loved it.'- Melissa Harrison,author of All Among the Barley
'A quietly courageous,open-hearted exploration of Britain's becks,bourns and streams.'- Patrick Barkham,author of The Butterfly Isles
'Lyrical,wholehearted and wise,The Flow is a hymn for the rivers of Britain.'- Lee Schofield,author of Wild Fell
'Honest,raw and moving,Amy's prose is as captivating as the rivers she describes. I thought I knew what rivers were,but this stunning book is a powerful reminder of their infinity,their mystery,and their bewildering complexity.'- Sophie Pavelle,author of Forget Me Not
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