The River Wye has been hidden from view in High Wycombe, covered over in the sixties as the powers that be at the time thought it was unsavoury and full of rubbish. Rangley-Wilson wants to go back to the source of the river, and discover about the people that lived and worked on or near the river, and the reasons why it was covered up.

He travels to soggy fields in search of the springs that make the tributaries and to the sites of old mills, and spends a lot of time in council offices trying to find out why the river has been stifled and ignored for so long. He writes about the inventor of the water meadow who saw how water flowing from a molehill kept the ground near green, rather than the parched grass nearby. He visits old mills, and hears the river through a grate in an underpass.

I always look forward to books that concentrate on a single place or entity. An author who really knows his landscape and his subject can really make these books soar. In parts this is really nicely written, he has a way of making what he is writing about engaging and interesting, and Rangley-Wilson does know the location having lived there in the past. However there are some parts that don’t seem to make the sense. One chapter was on trying to take salmon spawn to Tasmania, I can see the links, but a whole chapter? Interesting in lots of ways, but I feel it could have been so much more. ( )

In some ways I don't need to write a review, but simply say that Alison's review sums up my feelings exactly and in a better form than I can produce. But I will add a few thoughts.
This book was given to me as a present; the buyer being attracted by the Robert MacFarlane quote on the cover. There were lots of nice pieces of writing and a lot of interesting facts, but my problem was that I did not feel there was sufficient flow (not intended as a pun) to his discoveries; he wandered up and down the stream without explaining why to us and thus involving us in his search. ( )