Rivers

are old and most have a history, even a personal mythology that reflects a

river's personality, its influence on the major settlements along its journey

to the sea, its sex even. Tamsin Hopkins's stories flow compellingly. Whether

strange, tragic or shot through with humour and an eye for detail, the

stories are united by a human sensibility and elegant, accessible prose.

Tamsin Hopkins lives in London with her husband, children and dogs. She spent her formative years in Lagos and Brighton. She studied German at Kings College London where her relationship with the Thames may have begun. Since then she has been preoccupied with the world's rivers and oceans, and everything in, on and around them from mythology to ecology. Her collection Shore to Shore: River Stories is an expression of this passion.