Wow! I don’t think the Canal & River trust could have picked a more perfect Writer in Residence if they’d tried. Talk about find the right person, at the right time to undertake a project like this. What we have here is a book with an amazing collection of well researched history & travel writing. It provides the reader with a fabulous window into Britain’s canals and it’s multitude of users. I really enjoyed every bit of it and learnt so much. Loved the pics (even if some were hard to depict due to being printed in black on normal pages). My only slight complaint would be that I would’ve liked more detailed maps of where he was in each chapter, included in the text for it maybe. I like to know where things are quite specifically at. I can’t wait to work my way though the further reading section to find out even more. I’ve already ordered some copies for friends and a spare to leave by a canal for a random reader.

So many bits I could quote here, but this on from P142 caught my attention:

“Other canal boats carried barrels of urine, needed as a mordant in dying cloth in the Yorkshire mills; embarrassed boat crews might deny that was their cargo and claim to be carrying something more prestigious, but those in the know would meet the fibs with ‘you're taking the piss’.”

PS: I’m a Lock addict canal lover who dreams of having a house by the canals one day, with a little boat of my own at the end of the garden to go off exploring in. I’m too much of a stuff-a-holic to live aboard myself.

Packing up to post off to a fellow BookCrosser as my very belated side of a swap. Happy reading! I really enjoyed this one.

If you have picked up this book, You may have noticed there is a little hand written note/sticker inside with a unique number and direction to the BookCrossing website. In a nutshell, BookCrossing allows you the reader to become a part of the Books story. You can track the recorded movements of the book and add an opinion on the story. It’s free and you can do it anonymously. But if you join, you will get notified when the next reader journals it. You wouldn’t believe how far some books go!

Apologoes fpr the delay in journalling this book, thankyou very much for the trade.

I spent the first part of my life living close to canal, then moved to a place which has lots of beautiful canalside walks & pubs, but I still managed to learn a lot of interesting things from this book, which I'm now sending out as a wishlist tag RABCK.

Thanks for the wishlist tag plus two bonus books, a bar of chocolate and my first Christmas card!

Sending to Yogiberri who will read and return it to me.

Join UK Bookcrossers at the BCUK Sheffield Unconvention from 4-6 July 2025

New instalment of quality reading material from the Poidlesister...thank you very much 💕 💕💕