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Narrowboat Dreams: A Journey North by England's Waterways
by: Steve Haywood

List Price: £7.99

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Used Price: £3.34
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Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours Binding: Paperback
EAN: 9781840246704
ISBN: 1840246707
Label: Summersdale Publishers
Manufacturer: Summersdale Publishers
Number Of Pages: 320
Publication Date: July 07, 2008
Publisher: Summersdale Publishers
Studio: Summersdale Publishers
Sales Rank: 9457

Related Items:

The Water Road: An Odyssey by Narrowboat Through England's Waterways

Fruit Flies Like a Banana: England by Canal and Classic Car

Editorial Review:

Leicester Mercury, July 22 2008 :
'light-hearted and self-deprecating... a good summer read with good humour - ideal for anyone planning a canal holiday'

Synopsis:
At home, I'm a cantankerous old git. On the boat, after a week's cruising, I'm just a cantankerous old git with dirty hair.Steve Haywood has a problem. He doesn't know where he comes from. In the south, people think he's a northerner; in the north, they think he's from the south. Judged against global warming and the sad demise of Celebrity Big Brother, this hardly registers highly on the Richter scale of world disasters. But it's enough to worry Steve. And it's enough of an excuse for him to escape his long-suffering partner Em for a voyage of discovery along England's inland waterways.Travelling by traditional narrowboat, he heads north along two newly opened Pennine canals, a trip that takes him from Banbury in deepest Oxfordshire, through the vibrant modernity of Manchester, to the trendy affluence of Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire's answer to London's ciabatta belt. With irrepressible humour he recounts the history of the waterways and stories of his encounters with characters along the way, and attempts to define the magic that makes England's waterways so appealing.

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- Up the creek without a poodle
Another humorous outing by Steve Haywood who ventures north this time in his trusty narrow boat, `Justice'. A road trip from Banbury to Yorkshire and back would take little time, even in Steve's old Triumph. However with various delays and the tribulations of shallow canals, rusty locks and scary tunnels it becomes an odyssey consuming most of a summer. Steve's style is self-deprecating and dry. He is clearly an expert in the field but is never too esoteric or supercilious in his narrative. Quite the opposite in fact. Reading the book you come to understand locks, lock-keys and dog-soiled towpaths like an old boatman. Not all the action is on the water. He describes a visit to an award winning Yorkshire pie shop in detail, with the local ... Read More:

Rating:

- Narrowboat Laughs
What a great read! This is a hilariously funny follow-up to Steve Haywood's earlier canal journey in "Fruit Flies Like a Banana...".
He has managed to capture that sense of "where do I belong?" that so many of us East Midlanders experience. As a Nottingham man, I can even forgive him coming from Leicester because he kept me smiling for 300 odd pages.
What I particularly like is the way he captures the singlemindedness of the lone adventurer as he lovingly describes the narrow world of canal life without ever losing the priorities of his sickly Mother and his partner Em.
Just read it.
Mind you, I bet you will never eat a cornetto with the same enthusiasm again.

Rating:

- Dream On
This book is a witty travelogue, full of amusing incident and witty comment.The narrator envelopes us in the quirkyness of his life, engaging with casually met characters, taking time to contemplate his own history and that of the world discovered on his journey. He is by turns intrepid and aware of his own limitations, susceptible to reverie and dreams then pulled up short by blunt reality. I found the book well paced and structured, lively and thoughtful. I recommend it highly.

Rating:

- Narrowboat Optional
I loved this book, and you dont really need to be "au fait" with narrowboats and canals to enjoy it. It was very funny and as a midlander living in the south, I can see where he is coming from :-). Steve is a very amusing writer, this is the seond book that I have read from him, and it doesn't disappoint.
Well recommended read.

Rating:

- A boat, a bloke, a journey
The story of one man's journey on the lesser-known canals of northern England told with humour and a keen eye for the idiosyncracies of the people and places he encounters en route. It is, amongst many other things, an exploration of the nature of northerness and the tribulations of growing older, as well as a wry commentary on the state of the world. This adds up to a fun read, with an undercurrent of seriousness. Thoughtful, well-researched and thoroughly enjoyable.

Books : Narrowboat Dreams: A Journey North by England's Waterways