Description: In this entertaining book Patrick Wright explores many diverse aspects of the Thames river, its architecture and art, history and literature, industry and recreation - which is to say he explores the fabric of England, society and landscape. He talks to the many unusual characters who live and work on or near the river to discover more about the English today, and the past that has shaped them. Starting in the estuary - source of Britain's wealth over the centuries and now a scene of deserted factories, resting sea forts, wastelands and marshes - the author finds bolshie individualists, heirs of the protesters and revolutionaries of past times. He then turns to the upper reaches of the Thames - from its source, thru Oxford and Henley to London - and explores the river as a place of social encounter and class struggle, the history of riverside living and entertainment and the new upstream economy of management consultants and high-tech business. The final chapter is about London, and starts with the Putney Debates, immediately after the Civil War, when a new order of society was planned. After exploring futuristic architectural fantasies and other ideas of urban regeneration, the book closes with a look at Blair's Britain and the Millenium Dome. It is a wry and thought provoking portrait of England at the end of the century.

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