This is an engrossing read. The author has written several dozen little sketches, each about one of the many times the river Thames froze during a stretch of brutally cold weather. It was the perfect book to keep me company during the polar vortex that has invaded New York, bringing us temperatures below zero.

Each of the little vignettes is only a few pages long, but so beautifully done! There are sad stories, foolish stories, humorous stories… all with a keen sense of how humanity thrives or dies because of changes in the natural world.

I found this collection of short stories fascinating. All of them relate to the years in which London's River Thames froze over, 1142 - 1895. Although many such moments were embraced by the locals for frozen faires, sport, transportation, and even camouflage, there are also moments of tragedy, destruction and disaster. Let me also mention, these frozen winters were sometimes hardened even more so by plagues.
Humphreys' descriptive prose brought me to the edge of my seat as if I were sitting on the bank of the Thames. I highly recommend this collection.

The vignettes in this book were all based on different times in history when the Thames had frozen over and the various lives that were affected by it. This was a quick read and I easily got immediately drawn into these stories. I have to admit some of them were so interesting that I wish they had been longer. I wanted to know more about the characters' lives.

This book took me a while to get though because I got sick of it from time to time... how many stories about ice can one person take in a row! But it was charming and interesting although I wondered about the way she portrayed the people in different historical time periods and wonder if she didn't make them a little too much "like us" without taking into consideration their unique world views and historical placements. I was surprised by the environmentalist slant of the author's note at the end but I appreciated her thoughts and it made me think about the stories in yet another way.

I think, this book is a masterpiece, it hits every spot. In terms of language, plot, rhyme, general idea it is absolutely flawless.
In addition to spotless literary style, it can be seen as a kind of a historical textbook, covering life in London through the ages, giving a broad picture of feelings and aspirations, habits and customs. Some vignettes portray historical figures, some - ordinary people, and though it seems that the vignettes are short standalones, they are somehow connected, one is woven into another, like in a sonnet sequence. It's hauntingly beautiful.
For me it's A Perfect Book and unforgettable reading experience

The Thames River has only frozen in London about 40 times in recorded history (possibly in all of history - the freezings all generally happened during a period of time when London Bridge was built in such a way that it slowed the flow of the river in the city so that it could freeze; the current London Bridge is built to allow the water to flow much faster). This book is a collection of very short stories - most are no more than 2 pages - from every time the Thames froze. Some are based on true stories found in historical documents, and some are entirely invented. Some are cheerful, some are reflective, some are fun, some are devastating. But all are about the nature of ice in general and the nature of London when the river that bisects it is frozen over.

I enjoyed this book. It's a very quick read, and I feel like I got some historical information from it as well as being exposed to some very interesting prose stories about winter and ice. Coming out of what has been a very cold winter for my town, it was kind a nice farewell to winter for me.

The Frozen Thames is exactly what the title states - short little fictional vignettes (but based on documented events) about each year that the Thames has frozen. The time frame begins in 1142 and runs to 1927, and the subjects vary from the Black Death, the King being driven in his coach down the frozen river, a stone carver carving a gravestone for a child killed by an icicle, and a composer writing a symphony for the frozen river. Frost Fairs and frozen birds are recurrent happenings. This is quite an original idea, but it is the oddest little book!

The author's note states that "This book is intended as a long meditation on the nature of ice. Each story is a story of transformation, as ice itself is the result of a transformative process. Because of climate change, brought on by the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, we are in danger of losing ice from our world." If you are looking for a meditation on the nature of ice on the Thames, you will certainly find it here (and probably no place else)!