Katharine Norbury in Bath

Katharine Norbury’s debut book, The Fish Ladder, follows in the footsteps of natural history classics such as Helen MacDonald’s H is for Hawk and Robert MacFarlane’s The Old Ways. It is a transformative journey along a river to its source, with each path taking Norbury away from grief and ever closer to a life of joy and affirmation.

Abandoned as a baby and raised by loving adoptive parents, Norbury was always drawn to the beauty of the British countryside. And so following the miscarriage of a much-longed-for child, she sets out along the natural waterways of Britain with her nine year old daughter, Evie. The luminously observed landscape provides both a constant and a context to their expedition, as chance circumstance leads the two of them to the door of the woman who gave Norbury up all those years ago.

Combining travelogue, memoir, exquisite nature writing, fragments of poetry and tales from Celtic mythology, The Fish Ladder has a rare emotional resonance.

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