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Steel River

Walking the Tees – A Journey Through Nature in a Human World

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Steel River

By: Steve Nicholls
Narrated by: John Telfer
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Bloomsbury presents Steel River by Steve Nicholls, read by John Telfer.

Steve Nicholls makes an epic journey along the River Tees in north-east England, from the industrial complexes near its estuary to its source high in the Pennine Hills.

The Tees estuary was where Steve’s life-long passion for nature was born, launching a long career as a documentary maker. As he travels the length of the eighty-mile river, he uses his years of travelling the world and his work on nature films to place the fauna and flora he encounters along the Tees in a wider context.

He weaves together strands of personal experience, nature writing, botany, geology and history with an account of the impact of human industry and agriculture on the Tees and its valley. Steel River is thus a natural and social history of a remarkable river, but also presents the Tees as a universal exemplar of environmental degradation, allowing the author to reflect on – and offer prescriptions for – the broken state of the natural world after 10,000 years of human activity.©2025 Steve Nicholls (P)2025 Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Nature & Ecology Science Travel Writing & Commentary
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Critic reviews

The north-east has long been a place of proud industry. Beneath the sweat and grime, however, the region’s biodiversity has taken a battering for generations. In Steel River, Nicholls deftly examines whether nature — and by extension, humanity — can ever truly heal and regenerate.
An admirable book... Nicholls has a powerful message for us: that environmental degradation and social inequality are twin facets of the rush to rob the planet of its resources.
Praise for Steve Nicholls:
Steve Nicholls is an expert guide, leading us across meadows blooming with buttercups and orchids... He presents a visually stunning, readable and scientifically rigorous survey of Britain's wildflowers.
One of the best reads I have undertaken in 2023, [Nicholls] oozes knowledge and enthusiasm.
All stars
Most relevant
The Tees is a river I know incredibly well, and many of the stories told along Steve’s walks are ones that I knew in part or in full, but having them gathered together in one book is a delight.

Excellent narration, with only one mispronunciation, but you’d only know that if you were local. ‘Streatlem’ should be pronounced ‘Street-lum’

Very much enjoyed the interpretation of wider geopolitical and climate issues being put into context centred upon one river, a clever idea.

All in all a great listen, and I actually bought the physical book too to dip in and out of. Highly recommend.

Wonderful!

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Successfully weaves local social and natural history into an ode to his own home while illuminating numerous wider political and environmental issues.

Love letter to a river

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