London in Fragments

Mudlarking, searching the Thames foreshore, has a long tradition: mudlarks used to be small boys grubbing a living from scrap. Today's mudlarks unearth relics of the past, from Roman tiles to elegant Georgian pottery. Here are Ted Sandling's most evocative finds, gorgeously photographed in colour. Together they create a mosaic of everyday London life through the centuries, touching on ideas of Journeys, Pleasure and Vice, Industry, Adornment and Comfort. There are two themes behind the account: celebrating the beauty of small things, and making sense of the intangible connection that found objects give us to the individuals who lost them. An evocative and detailed text places the fragments back in the objects they came from, and places the objects in the flow of London's history. The French fold jacket is printed on the reverse with a map of access points to the river, and the book concludes with advice on how to start mudlarking yourself.