My Pick of the Week!

Happy New Year! Here's the first book of 2008.
The Frozen Thames by Helen Humphreys.

In its long history, the river Thames has frozen solid forty times. Canadian author Humphreys has created 40 stories or vignettes of that frozen river. The reader gets a peek into history - we see Queen Matilda in 1142 trying to escape her besieged castle in a snowstorm; lovers meeting on the frozen river in the plague years; a simple farmer persuading his oxen the ice is safe; Frost Fairs lasting weeks long built onto the frozen river; and families who take songbirds into their homes to save them from freezing. This winter, have a cup of tea, put your feet up and enjoy these wintry tales.