The Fish Ladder

The Fish Ladder: A Journey Upstream by Katharine Norbury
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I often select a book to purchase based upon the sleeve artwork. ‘The Fish Ladder’ by Katharine Norbury was no exception. I came across it on one of my recent forays into Waterstones bookshop and bought a copy. Philip Pullman describes it as “A beautiful, strange, intoxicating and utterly unique story”. This book is a gem. Described as a combination of memoir, travelogue and nature writing The Fish Ladder is incredibly visual. Interlaced with fragments of poetry and tales from Celtic mythology. Katharine Norbury was abandoned as a baby in a Liverpool convent. Raised by loving, adoptive parents she grew into a wanderer, drawn by the beauty of the British countryside.

Norbury’s clever use of word combinations is unique. She has a very special talent:

“I could make out occasional townships, slipped like love-notes into cracks along the coast”

just one sentence that conveys so much.

“... and a few aged sisters sat in pews, white as doves, tucked into prayer”.

Such a beautiful depiction of the purity of introspection and contemplation.
There are moments that take your breath away. This passage made me stop and then re-read several times:

“I could feel the boniness of his frame, pared by illness, and no matter how close we stood, or how tightly we embraced, the gap between us seemed to be widening, the pockets of air expanding, and then acquiring the solidity of Perspex. Dad felt like a fairy’s child that disappears when seen for what it is. I held in my arms a bundle of twigs and feathers, already splintering into dust”.

On her journey of self discovery Katherine is accompanied by her nine-year-old daughter , Evie. This is a captivating story that is also an exploration of the majesty of the natural world. It is totally original and life-affirming.


View all my reviews