‘Exhilaratingly curious and entertainingly knowledgeable’  Jane Shilling, Evening Standard

‘Hypnotic — yet infectiously jolly…’ Sinclair McKay, The Spectator

Mudlarking, searching the Thames foreshore, has a long tradition: mudlarks used to be small boys grubbing a living from scrap. Today’s mudlarks unearth the rich fragments of London’s history, from Roman tiles to elegant Georgian pottery, turned up afresh by each tide.

To synchronise with September’s Totally Thames festival, we are delighted to welcome Ted Sandling to the Victoria Embankment to discuss his captivating book London in Fragments: A Mudlark’s Treasures.

Beautifully photographed in colour, his incredible finds – clay pipes, 17th-century Rhineland pottery, fragments of delicate willow-pattern crockery – create a mosaic of everyday London life through the centuries. Touching on ideas of Journeys, Pleasure and Vice, Industry, Adornment and Comfort, this handsomely designed book celebrates the beauty of small things, and the intangible connection they give us to the individuals who lost them.

The witty and informative text puts these fragments back in the objects they came from, and places the objects in the flow of London’s history. It concludes with practical advice on how to start mudlarking yourself.

The charge for the two-course lunch (starter, main course, coffee and chocolates) and a glass of club wine is £31 per person. To book, phone 020 7930 9871 or email louisa@nlc.org.uk. Payment can be made by cheque, bank transfer or debit card. Please book by 5 pm on Friday, 14 September 2018.