• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary navigation
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Humphrey Hawksley

Author, commentator and broadcaster

  • Home
  • About
  • Journalism
  • Books
  • Humphrey’s
    Diary
  • Blog
  • Podcasts
  • Contact
    & Photos
  • Rake Ozenna Thrillers
  • Future History
  • International Thrillers
  • Non-Fiction
  • All Books

Author to Author with Humphrey: Nick Higham

9th August 2022 Leave a Comment

23Aug2022

Author of The Mercenary River

6.00pm BST

Goldster Book Club

Register for event

The Mercenary River tells the story of the River Thames and London’s struggle to supply its citizens with water from the Middle Ages to the present day.  Humphrey Hawksley is with author and journalist Nick Higham to discuss his page-turning narrative that uncovers a series of incredible stories about Britain’s most famous river: 

How the most powerful steam engine in the world was first brought to London; how one Victorian London water company deliberately cut off 2,000 households, even though it knew they had no alternative source of supply; a financial scandal which brought two of the water companies close to collapse in the 1870s; and the Chelsea Waterworks which was the first in the world to filter the water it supplied its customers, the same technique still used to purify two-thirds of London’s drinking water..  The final question Humphrey will put to Nick – are today’s 21st century water companies any improvement on their Victorian predecessors?   Mercenary River is a tale of remarkable technological, scientific and organisational breakthroughs. It is also a story of greed and complacency, high finance and low politics. Nick Higham is a Londoner, who spent thirty years with the BBC, fifteen as their arts and media correspondent and also hosting ‘Meet the Author’ on the BBC News Channel. So he may have some tips for Goldster’s Inside Story presenters. Join Nick and Humphrey 6.00pm on 23 August on a historical trip down the river.

Inside Story - Nick Higham

 

 

Download Event to Calendar

Return to Event list

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn
  • Click to share on Threads (Opens in new window) Threads
  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window) Telegram
  • Click to share on Mastodon (Opens in new window) Mastodon
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window) WhatsApp
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email

Filed Under: Events Tagged With: Goldster

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

For enquiries and further information

To contact Humphrey:
[email protected]

Before sending your email address please read our GDPR Compliance Statement and Privacy Notice to reassure yourself that we are looking after your data responsibly.

Categories

  • Events (349)
  • Joining the Dots (31)
  • Travel & Food (5)

Archives

Follow Humphrey on X (formerly Twitter)

Humphrey Hawksley Follow

Journalist, Host (Goldster Bookclub), Host (Democracy Forum), Author of the Rake Ozenna Thriller Series | Asian Waters, the struggle for the Indo-Pacific

Avatar
Retweet on Twitter Humphrey Hawksley Retweeted
12 Jun

A pleasure to be invited as a panelist on Wednesday 11 June at the webinar organised by @thedemocracyltd titled:

'Against the backdrop of a US-China trade war, how EU-India FTA could be a game changer'

It was great to speak about the wider impact and implications of the…

Reply on Twitter 1933224150442586556 Retweet on Twitter 1933224150442586556 1 Like on Twitter 1933224150442586556 1 Twitter 1933224150442586556
Retweet on Twitter Humphrey Hawksley Retweeted
24 Apr

Can democracy survive in the changing world order amidst the US' American First Policy via @YouTube

w/Nic Cheeseman, @Fromagehomme, @YoungsRichard, Giselle Bosse, @EuDemocracyHub, and hosted by @HumphreyHawk and president Lord Bruce.

Reply on Twitter 1915215389765558397 Retweet on Twitter 1915215389765558397 3 Like on Twitter 1915215389765558397 5 Twitter 1915215389765558397
Retweet on Twitter Humphrey Hawksley Retweeted
15 Mar

Having trouble choosing your next audiobook? For a limited time, you can download "Asian Waters: The Struggle Over the South China Sea and the Strategy of Chinese Expansion" for 60% off! @HumphreyHawk

Reply on Twitter 1901010562516930640 Retweet on Twitter 1901010562516930640 2 Like on Twitter 1901010562516930640 3 Twitter 1901010562516930640
Load More

Footer

Travel & Food Blog

Humphrey’s favourite place in Anchorage, Alaska – Mount Baldy

Taiwan – Old China blends with New Asia

For Winter Sun, Unwind in Dubai

Bhutan – Land of Luxury & Legends

Hong Kong & the Great Outdoors

Search site

Goldster

  • The Goldster Conversations Podcast
  • Goldster Conversations Video Archive

Connect with Humphrey

Join Humphrey’s mailing list

Subscribe

Email Humphrey

For general enquiries and bookings for events:

[email protected] and [email protected]

Copyright © 2008–2025 Humphrey Hawksley · All rights reserved · Site Terms, Cookies and Privacy · GDPR Compliance Statement · Website by LiT Web Studio

  • Contact & Photos
  • Subscribe
Manage Cookie Consent
This site uses cookies and other tracking technologies to assist with navigation and your ability to leave comments, analyse your use of our website, assist with our social media promotional efforts, and provide content from third parties.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage {vendor_count} vendors Read more about these purposes
Cookie choices
{title} {title} {title}