Tamesis : A Collection of Riverside Verse – 9781917837248

Tamesis, a lyrical journey along the River Thames, where water, history and humanity interlace in both intimate and expansive verse composed by Edmund Hall, a lifelong sailor and volunteer RNLI lifeboatman. Hall’s verses capture the river, not as a postcard but as a living, breathing force – by turns majestic, dangerous, and tender. His poems flow from Oxfordshire tributaries to London’s tidal reaches, weaving together personal experience, urban memory, and ancient echoes of the river’s role in shaping lives.

With a foreword by Sir Ian McKellen, this collection places the Thames within a cultural and emotional landscape that feels at once timeless and contemporary. Hall’s verse, at times reflective and elegiac, at times raw with grit and immediacy, recalls the everyday realities of service on the lifeboat as much as it celebrates the beauty of a sunset on Barn Elms Reach or the stillness of Sonning’s trout pools. The river here is never mere scenery – it is character, companion, and witness.

The book is illustrated with hand-drawn images inspired by the poems. Illustrated by Gary Partridge, a Coldstream Guards veteran turned artist, Tamesis pairs the words and emotions of the verses, with a series of unique images inspired by them.