Part travelogue, part memoir, this deeply moving story of self-discovery – told through journeys on foot along the glittering rivers of Britain – is nature writing at its finest and destined to be a classic of memoir
Katharine Norbury trained as a film editor with the BBC and has worked extensively in film and television drama. She is a graduate of the Creative Writing MA programme at UEA. The Fish Ladder is her first book. It was longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and was a Telegraph Best Book of the Year 2015. Katharine was chosen as the Observer’s Rising Star in non-fiction for 2015. She lives in London with her family. @kjnorbury
Beautiful and brave ... A modern Greek myth
*James Rebanks, author of The Shepherd's Life*
What a delight! The Fish Ladder is a luminous sort of book,
beautifully written, darting here and there like a kingfisher over
a stream. A beautiful, strange, intoxicating and utterly unique
story
*Philip Pullman*
The Fish Ladder is truly compelling. Its diverse mix of nature,
travel and personal history combines to produce a moving journal of
one woman's endeavours to walk from dark into light. Warm and
touching, its impact lies in its simplicity and emotional power
*Jo Brand*
This is an unusual memoir leading from the grief of a death to the
shocking discovery of a birth. The fluid narrative, with its
tributaries and false trails, its reflections of dream-like
memories and focus on indiscernible destinations, seems to follow
the rivers along which Katharine Norbury loves to travel. She has
written a magical and most original first book
*Michael Holroyd*
The Fish Ladder is a beautiful book. An exquisite example of ‘new
nature writing’. The scattered fragments of pain and loss and
loveliness are bound together into a coherent whole. A generous,
moving book and extraordinarily well written too
*Sara Maitland*
Skilfully crafted memoir … A deeply human story that is by turns
dramatic, moving and beautifully written. It’s a book about both
nature and personal tragedy, but it’s also about the way the green
and healing world around us restores the grieving soul … Norbury is
an immensely assured writer, and it is astonishing to reflect that
this is her first book *****
*Mail on Sunday*
**** Part of the book’s charm, and its eventual magic, comes from
watching a writer find her voice, and from following a seemingly
directionless search as it discovers focus, coalescence, and,
eventually, wonder … The ending is reached through twists of
emotion that made me cry. The memoirist’s challenge, as I was once
told while struggling with one, is simple: “Give a true account of
yourself”. The Fish Ladder accomplishes this brilliantly
*Sunday Telegraph*
There is much to learn from The Fish Ladder about how the memoir
can tell a story as well as be a meditation; how language can be
both profound and sensuous. It's an unsentimental but extraordinary
exploration of how we use narrative to understand our place in the
world
*Amit Chaudhuri*
Deeply affecting, atmospheric and sensuous, The Fish Ladder is a
beautifully written meditation of what it is to be alone, of
yearning for connection and of the consolations of nature
*Polly Samson*
A beguiling amalgam of personal anecdote, travelogue and family
history … Norbury attains a wonder-struck prose poetry
*Independent*
An examination of the consoling effect of the natural world on
human grief and torment … The connection between water and life ...
is for Norbury a visceral ... thing. As I turned the pages of her
book, I couldn’t help but think of The Tempest, and of Ariel’s
song: Full fathom five thy father lies
*Rachel Cooke, Observer*
In places, Norbury’s writing achieves a lovely unobtrusive merging
of emotion and description, so that the landscape reveals her
feelings and in doing so shares her burden
*Guardian*
In tender, yearning prose, she beautifully describes her
surroundings and ponders the way they replenish her sore heart and
restore her sense of belonging
*Sunday Express*
The keenness of Norbury’s vision is a delight … Her prose is imbued
with a quiet but infectious vitality … Despite its emotionally
charged themes, there is nothing sentimental about Norbury’s
account: her dramatic journey is shaped by grief, illness and
mental breakdown, and she writes unflinchingly and with great power
about each. The result is as gripping as any fictional family saga,
and few readers will fail to be moved to tears
*The Lady, Book of the Week*
This may be another H is for Hawk, a book with a very personal
narrative, beautiful writing and nature at its heart – this time
with fish and a river
*New Scientist*
Candid, subjective, and rooted in the body... its exploration of
motherhood – particularly Norbury’s relationship with Evie, and
with the mother who brought her up – is achingly poignant
*Melissa Harrison, Caught by the River*
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