The first book in the popular Michael Baker series, A Boy Off The Bank tells a story of England’s canals in wartime, of the pressure and the pain, of teh humour and resilience of the boating people. Both tragic and heart-warming, it charts the progress of a job becoming ever more difficult against the broader panorama of worldwide events, seen from the perspective of a narowboat’s back cabin through the eyes of a young boy:
Ten-year-old Michael has had enough – mentally and physically abused by his drunken father, treated as a skivvy by his hard-pressed mother, he’s taken all that his miserable life can throw at him. The the final blow falls whne his pet dog is taken away as well; ona bitter January night in 1940, he runs away from his home in the railway town of Wolverton, determined to commit suicide. But all does not go according to plan…
rescued from the ice-cold water, he finds himself adopted into the boating community and slowly relearns trust and affection there. As the years of conflict pass, he too develops the traditional boatmen’s pride in their job and their boats, to become a respected member of the canal population. Further books by Geoffrey Lewis – A Girl At The Tiller, The New Number One, Cattle & Sheep & Boats – continue Michael’s story into peacetime and beyond the end of commercial carrying on England’s canals.
‘We recommend this book as background reading for our trainee crews’ Nick Wolfe, The Narrowboat Trust
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