Ice Ice Baby

Since the 1100's, the Thames River has frozen solid 40 times. Each chapter in Helen Humphreys's short book The Frozen Thames tells a brief story about each occasion of freezing. Humphreys imagines the people who lived and worked on the river over the centuries, as well as the people who profited from and found enjoyment in the freezing of the river. Although the stories are fiction, Humphrey mentions that most of the incidents she fictionalizes are based on documented events. I loved the pictures of what life was like throughout the centuries, and the descriptions of the ice and the freezing temperatures were enough to make me shiver. Believe me, the irony here is not lost on me. For all the complaining I have been doing about the lingering winter, I realized how odd it was that I was reading a book about a frozen river. But her images of birds dropping frozen and dead out of the sky and families with little or no heat reminded me that it could have been worse. In the author's note, Humphreys points out that because of climate change, we are in danger of losing ice from our world. Which may be the case, but it doesn't sound like that is the reason why the Thames has not frozen since the 1800s. The construction of the old London Bridge was such that it created an environment more susceptible to freezing. Whereas, when the Bridge was rebuilt in 1831, its new design enabled water to flow more freely and quickly, which made it less likely to freeze. Anyhow, it's a quick read with interesting stories and wonderful descriptions. Maybe save this one for a hot July day.