Pamela Rushby
Hardcover 2023
Mud larking on the Thames in London can be a dangerous thing …
What lies hidden in the mud? What might happen if you look at it too long? And what will happen if you let it go?
Twelve-year-old Nina is not happy. Her scientist parents are spending a year in Antarctica. And Nina’s being sent to London to stay with her Aunt Bee, an intertidal archaeologist, who lives on a converted barge on the Thames. She’s also a keen mud larker, combing the river mud for fascinating, long-forgotten articles from past lives. Nina arrives with an Attitude. Her parents have never left her behind before. It takes time for her to settle in, helped by the MudPuddlers, a local group of enthusiastic amateur mud larks, and especially by Molly, an elderly MudPuddler living on a nearby barge. Molly draws Nina into the magic and mystery of the ancient river and its treasures. When she finds herself stranded in time, in the Blitz in 1940, Nina and a very unwilling fellow traveller, Tom, become runaways, fumbling their way across wartime England, desperate to return to London. Will they ever see their families again?
Pamela Rushby is the author of over 250 books for children and young adults, as well as children’s TV scripts, documentaries, short stories and freelance journalism. Pam has been an advertising copywriter, pre-school teacher, and producer of educational television, audio and multimedia. She has won many awards, including the NSW Premier’s Ethel Turner Prize, nine CBCA Notable Books – and a bag of gold coins at a film festival in Iran!
Pam believes the strangest, most riveting, heart-breaking, laugh-out-loud stories aren’t fiction. They’re real. They come from history. And she loves tripping over unusual incidents from history – and then writing about them. Her website is www.pamelarushby.com
Pam lives in Brisbane with her husband and six visiting scrub turkeys. She has two children (plus son-in-law and two gorgeous grandchildren).
She is passionately interested in children’s books and television, ancient history and Middle Eastern food. Her website is www.pamelarushby.com