Elegy For a River

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

Water voles are small, brownish, bewhiskered and charming. Made famous by 'Ratty' in The Wind in the Willows, once they were a ubiquitous part of our waterways. They were a totem of our rivers. Now, however, they are nearly gone. This is their story, and the story of a conservationist with a wild hope: that he could bring them back.

Tom Moorhouse spent eleven years beside rivers, fens, canals, lakes and streams, researching British wildlife. Quite a lot of it tried to bite him. He studied four main species - two native and endangered, two invasive and endangering - beginning with water voles. He wanted to solve their conservation problems. He wanted to put things right.

This book is about whether it worked, and what he learnt - and about what those lessons mean, not just for water voles but for all the world's wildlife. It is a book for anyone who has watched ripples spread on lazy waters, and wondered what moves beneath. Or who has waited in quiet hope for a rustle in the reeds, the munch of a stem, or the patter of unseen paws.

© Tom Moorhouse 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

Critics Review

  • Oh my ears and whiskers. I loved this… Self-deprecating humour combines with a paean to the wonders of creation, hard facts and hope for an imperilled species.

    Saga

  • It flows from the heart, eddies with fascinating information, and runs cool and clear with concern about the state of our rivers. They now have their champion.

    John Lewis-Stempel

  • Book of the Week

    Country Life

  • What a book. It has everything I love. It is lively, it is tender, it is fascinating, it starts small and very particular, and then – my God – by the end you are doing the Hallelujah chorus. It feels such an important book and I hope that everyone reads it. It seems to me to deliver on the greatest thing a book can achieve – when, through reading, you feel changed and inspired to act.

    Rachel Joyce, author of Miss Benson's Beetle and The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

  • Tom Moorhouse has written a book about ecological loss that is also somehow laugh-out-loud funny – passionate, warm and full of fascinating insights into the eccentric world of the field naturalist.’

    Isabella Tree, author of WILDING

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