I loved this. Laing follows the river Ouse from its source to its mouth on the Sussex coast. Along the way she details the plants and the animals, the people she passes (and their verbatim conversations - which were great), and has many digressions into the history of the places she passes, including lots of information about Virginia Woolf (who drowned in the Ouse), and her husband. All of it fascinating. The only bit that dropped a little for me was the industrial mouth of the river - I found it hard to visualise from Laing's descriptions. Perhaps she's better at countryside descriptions, although I've also read The Lonely City and loved that too. Laing is an amazing writer.