From West Country torrents to Levels and Fens, rocky Welsh canyons, the salmon highways of Scotland and the chalk rivers of the Yorkshire Wolds, Amy-Jane follows springs, streams and rivers to explore tributary themes of wildness and wonder, loss and healing, mythology and history, cyclicity and transformation. The Flow is a book about water, and, like water, it meanders, cascades and percolates through many lives, landscapes and stories. Returning to visit the Rawthey years later, Amy realises how much she misses the connection to the natural world she always felt when on or close to rivers, and so begins a new phase of exploration. Kate never came home, and her death left her devoted family and friends bereft and unmoored. On New Year's Day 2012, Amy-Jane Beer's beloved friend Kate set out with a group of others to kayak the River Rawthey in Cumbria. 272 pages.A visit to the rapid where she lost a cherished friend unexpectedly reignites Amy-Jane Beer's love of rivers setting her on a journey of natural, cultural and emotional discovery. The Flow is a book about water and, like water, it runs through myriad lives and landscapes, with tributary themes of nature and adventure, loss and recovery (of people and ecosystems), friendship, motherhood, mythology, cyclicity and transformation, history and prehistory, farming, rewilding, flood management and access to nature. Remarkable for its history, ecology, and legal status, the Derwent prompted the highest court in the land to ask: what is a river? The strange course of the Yorkshire Derwent (which rises near the sea and turns inland) meanders through the book. The rivers are primarily British, including West Country torrents (the Dart and East Lyn), swollen giants (the Severn and Thames), rocky Welsh canyons, Pennine white water classics, the salmon highways of Scotland, the gin-clear chalk rivers of the Yorkshire Wolds, and the astonishing slot canyon of Hell Gill. The voices are those of friends, writers, poets, singers, conservationists, adventurers, river managers, campaigners, farmers, artists, historians, archaeologists. The result is a book of many rivers and many voices. Kate never came home, and her death left her devoted family and friends bereft and unmoored.įinally visiting the Rawthey years later, Amy-Jane realises how much she misses the connection to the natural world she always felt when she was close to rivers, and so begins a new phase of exploration. On New Year's Day 2012, Amy-Jane Beer's beloved friend Kate set out with a small group of others to kayak the river Rawthey in the Howgill Fells.

A visit to the rapid where she lost a cherished friend unexpectedly reignites Amy-Jane Beer's love of rivers setting her on a journey of natural, cultural and emotional discovery. Britain - Site & Tourist Guides, Walkers MapsĪvailable from 17 August 2023.

Amy jane beer the flow