| ||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in The Water Road: A Narrowboat Odyssey Through England: An Odyssey by Narrowboat Through England's Waterways for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
The Water Road is the story of a four month circumnavigation by narrowboat of 'The Grand Cross', the name given to the inland waterway linking the Thames to the Humber, Severn and Mersey. Starting in London, Paul Gogarty follows a figure of eight through Britain's major cities and across the Pennines. Entering the world's most concentrated canal network Gogarty sails into England's past and future. 'The Cut' (the name most commonly used for the canals) is a blueprint of when England was a big island and the inland waterways its motorway. But, after more than a century of neglect, 'The Cut' is now enjoying a second golden age with waterfront cities being regenerated and more inland waterways currently opening in Britain than were being built at the height of Canal Mania 200 years ago. 'The Cut' is a hidden garden flashed with kingfishers and traditional narrowboats; a parallel universe ringing with the laughter of water gypsies, the thin cries of bats and drunken congregations in waterfront pubs. This is a journey across the face of England with all its exultations and darkness; rave boats, glorious sunshine and sheeting rain: canals that have been resurrected and enjoying their new summer and those still abandoned like shameful secrets. The Water Road is a voyage that is poignant, illuminating and entertaining at every turn.
About the Author
Paul Gogarty is a contributor to the Daily Telegraph, Sunday Times, Guardian and Daily Express. He is travel editor at Cosmopolitan magazine, and from 1992 to 2001 was chief travel writer at the Daily and Sunday Telegraph and for three years a regular presenter on BBC 1's Holiday programme.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
49 of 49 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The Water Road is a book for narrowboaters, towpath walkers, armchair travellers and those who just love quirky reads about Britain. Gogarty's solo journey through backdoor England is indeed an odyssey, with a cast of hundreds of the delightful characters he discovered populating the inner waterways. Until now books on the canals have been dry historical tomes. At last we have a classic of our time which celebrates the renaissance of the British waterways. Gogarty's journey of 920 miles took him 4 months. I finished it in 3 days as I just couldn't put it down.
38 of 39 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Gogarty's Water Road runs the risk of alienating all the people he met on his trip up and down Englands waterways, for outing one the UK's best kept secrets. This thoroughly enjoyable read describes an almost Narnia-like world that exists right under our noses, and which this book will make you want to reach out and grab. Those who live the life that this author had a taste of, whilst researching this beautifully written, and colourfully described travelogue, are truly lucky. Whilst the rest of us fret about credit card repayments and Bush and Iraq, the people on the water road glide happily by, oblivious in their charmed world. I wouldn't mind betting that this book will become the modern equivalent of Rolt's 1940s classic 'Narrow Boat', which has been in print ever since.
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Whilst we all run around complaining of no free time to do the things we want to do, there is no time to stop and work out if there is a better way. Paul Gogarty has found the time to write a great work by slowing down, and where better on the canals of England where 4 miles an hour speed limits prevail.
If this had been published in the 70s, reading it today you would assume that it's not like that any more. And you'd be wrong. The canals of Britain are reviving slowly but surely and this book sends a very positive message of this revival.
Gogarty has captured the spirit of the waterways, and the people who inhabit them, whilst somehow managing to portray the slowed-down life to be led. The best travel books are those that take you there and make you want to jump straight into his shoes. In this case I have spent the last few days aboard Caroline with Paul and had a wonderful time.
I imagine if you are as far as reading this review, the secret of Britain's canals is no secret, but whoever you are, you should find the time in your hurried lives to sit down for a leisurely read of this great book.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Was this review helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Too many adjectives
I can't help the feeling that this chap has made the tour but really not a lot happened so he's made most of it up. Read more
Published 18 days ago by Emerald Fox
A recommended book for canal lovers
As a lover of waterways and canals in particular,I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. I agree though with another reviewer in that I found some of the quotations tedious and... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Andrew J. Bell
It grows on you
Having bought the book for its given programme I am positively surprised that it is not just (yet) another book about a waterway experience. Read more
Published 24 months ago by Volker Knopp
A highly evocative account
This is an account of a four month journey that Paul Gogarty undertook during the summer of 2001 (during the foot and mouth outbreak) around the English canal system: a... Read more
Published on 26 Oct 2009 by Blencathra
can there be a better written book
This is probably the best canal book i have read. I felt like I was on the trip myself. A book i will read again. Read more
Published on 22 Oct 2009 by Mr. M. B. Bates
An excellent read
So good I read it twice. Contrary to the previous reviewer's opinion on the 'present tense' style of writing, I find that it works extremely well with this book and serves to carry... Read more
Published on 11 Oct 2006 by Big Bry
Excellent read, enjoyable and very hard to put down.
My title says it all. I agree with the last review and would suggest you don't even read the one before. Read more
Published on 7 Sep 2004 by chris
Potentially great, could have done with a tough editor.
This book could have been one of the waterways classics. He showed an excellent ability to research and prepare and – more importantly – the knack to have interesting... Read more
Published on 19 Dec 2003 by Andrew Denny
The Water Road an Odysey by Narrowboat through England's Wat
This is a highly evocative book which proves irresistible reading, especially if you find canals themselves just as irresistible. Read more
Published on 5 Aug 2003
The Water Road an Odysey by Narrowboat through England's Wat
This is a highly evocative book which proves irresistible reading, especially if you find canals themselves just as irresistible. Read more
Published on 5 Aug 2003
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
