The Fish Ladder

Katharine Norbury was abandoned as a baby in a Liverpool convent. Raised by loving adoptive parents, she grew into a wanderer, drawn by the landscape of the British countryside. One summer, following the miscarriage of a much-longed-for child, Katharine sets out - accompanied by her nine-year-old daughter, Evie - with the idea of following a river from the sea to its source. The luminously observed landscape grounds the walkers, earths them, providing both a constant and a context to their expeditions. But what begins as a diversion from grief soon evolves into a journey to the source of life itself, when a chance circumstance forces Katharine to the door of the woman who abandoned her all those years ago. Combining travelogue, memoir, exquisite nature writing and fragments of poems with tales from Celtic mythology, The Fish Ladder has a rare emotional resonance. It is a portrait of motherhood, of a literary marriage, a hymn to the adoptive family, a captivating story of self-discovery. But perhaps most of all it is an exploration of the extraordinary majesty of the natural world.Imbued with a keen and joyful intelligence, this original and life-affirming book is set to become a classic of its genre.

Katharine Norbury trained as a film editor with the BBC and has worked extensively in film and television drama. She is a graduate of the Creative Writing MA programme at UEA and teaches writing about place to US undergraduates at CAPA International Education. She lives in London with her family. The Fish Ladder is her first book.

“A beguiling amalgam of personal anecdote, travelogue and family history … Norbury attains a wonder-struck prose poetry” –  Independent

“An examination of the consoling effect of the natural world on human grief and torment … The connection between water and life ... is for Norbury a visceral ... thing. As I turned the pages of her book, I couldn't help but think of The Tempest, and of Ariel's song: Full fathom five thy father lies” –  Rachel Cooke, Observer

“In places, Norbury's writing achieves a lovely unobtrusive merging of emotion and description, so that the landscape reveals her feelings and in doing so shares her burden” –  Guardian

“In tender, yearning prose, she beautifully describes her surroundings and ponders the way they replenish her sore heart and restore her sense of belonging” –  Sunday Express

“The keenness of Norbury's vision is a delight … Her prose is imbued with a quiet but infectious vitality … Despite its emotionally charged themes, there is nothing sentimental about Norbury's account: her dramatic journey is shaped by grief, illness and mental breakdown, and she writes unflinchingly and with great power about each. The result is as gripping as any fictional family saga, and few readers will fail to be moved to tears” –  The Lady, Book of the Week

“This may be another H is for Hawk, a book with a very personal narrative, beautiful writing and nature at its heart – this time with fish and a river” –  New Scientist