Description
'The water is cold and pristine, so crystalline the earth could be exhaling light. I close my eyes and feel the aliveness of it. I can almost hear it breathe.' Learning that her father is dying, Juliette quits the city and returns to her roots in Gloucestershire. There to catch and reflect her grief is the River Churn, reputed as the ancient source of the Thames. It winds its way through the memories and landscapes of her youth. From seven springs rising in a Cotswolds valley to a lush confluence in Cricklade, Juliette sets out on a watery pilgrimage in and along the river, finding solace in its shifting, living terrain, and stirring up the sediment of the mythmaking, numinous life force it has been for generations of people. Vivid and closely observed, Tenderfoot is an unforgettable meditation on the ways a river can hold a life together even as it's falling apart.