- Paperback: 216 pages
- Publisher: Alan Sutton; New Ed edition (1994)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0750908068
- ISBN-13: 978-0750908061
- Product Dimensions: 21 x 13.8 x 2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 505,835 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Description
Product Description
First published in 1944, this book has been said by many to have started a revival of interest in the English waterways. It was on a spring day in 1939 that L.T.C. Rolt first stepped aboard Cressy. This is the story of how he and his wife adapted and fitted out the boat as a home and recreates the journey of some 400 miles that they made along the network of waterways in the Midlands. It recalls the boatmen and their craft, and celebrates the then seemingly timeless nature of the English countryside through which they passed.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
One mans passion - pleasure for millions,
By A Customer
This review is from: Narrow Boat (Paperback)
Considered by many to be a "classic" its prose does not perhaps justify the title. The author and the tale he tells in this book however do!The tales he tells are of course dated, but if you have a soul and have cruised the same waterways as he does aboard "Cressy" you cannot help but find yourself aboard with him! Anyone who enjoys the canals today owes a debt of gratitude to Rolt, whatever may have transpired in latter years when the IWA became a hive of politics. Without him (and yes, more like him who have perhaps gone unsung) our canals would not be here today.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Historically interesting, but with cultural blinkers,
By
This review is from: Narrow Boat (Paperback)
Rolt is an excellent writer, with a good eye for what he sees and good descriptive text, but with massive cultural blinkers.
His description of his travels on board his converted narrow boat Cressy back in the 1940s was to be one of the sparks leading to the foundation of the Inland Waterways Association and the restoration of the British canal network. In the regard of writing about his journey, and his description of the life of the few remaining owners of horse-drawn boats when he encountered them, he gives many useful details (I'd never known that concertinas were popular instruments among boatsmen). However, his blinkers come from his conviction that everything of the past is good and everything of the machine age is bad. He says quite seriously that he believes the canals to be the safest form of transport ever devised, but does not spot the contradiction when he encounters a boatman whose daughter had recently drowned in a lock (in fact, drownings and other accidents were pretty common). He comments on the life span of over a hundred of some old countrymen in the parish records he views and attributes it to their simple life, but fails to spot the high infant mortality in those same records. He loves his books, but believes that the illiterate boatman loses nothing by his lack of knowledge. It's a good book if you want to read about the pre-restoration Inland Waterways, complete with the last surviving canal pubs (in the era of real ale served in a jug), but you may find it a touch annoying if you feel that you wouldn't actually want to have lived in Olde England even if it looks very charming in retrospect.
32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A book that changed the world.,
By
This review is from: Narrow Boat (Paperback)
It really is a classic. If you are looking for a history of British canals, this is not the book for you. But as an elegy for a world we have lost (the book was written in the summer and autumn of 1939) it cannot be beaten. It should be read in the same spirit as 'Lark Rise to Candleford'. On publication, after the war, it was greeted with huge enthusiasm, as people remembered what tey had been fighting for. As a consequence of it's publication, the Inland Waterways Association was formed, which has managed to transform British canals. If you enjoy the canals, as boater, walker or historian, this is the book that more than any other stopped them from being filled in the sixties. And it is at least arguable that Rolt's writings were highly influential on the early days of the self sufficiency movement, and so, ultimately, Green politics. And it is beautifully written.
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