The Boat of Small Mysteries - Robyn Beecroft

[watervole]

 It's so nice to read a book involving narrowboats by someone who actually knows what they are writing about!

I remember once reading a romance involving a narrowboat and spending more time mentally nitpicking than getting involved in the romance...

 

Beecroft knows how a weed hatch works and what you use it for, and likewise for the rest of the waterways equipment.

 

Does it also work as a novel?  Yes, it's a gentle story, made up of different people whom Emily meets and re-meets along the inland waterways.  I particularly enjoyed the group of student with their floating party, who keep needing Emily's help due to their general ineptness with narrowboats. 

 

Emily has her own, health-related problems, but there are also other boaters happy to assist her when her pain flares up too badly.

 

People help her, and she solves problems for them.

 

There is also romance, but romance with a very Beecroft twist - which happens to work for me :)

Comments

[vilakins]

Thank you - bought!

We've only been on a narrowboat once but follow a couple of youtubers, so I know the terms and problems from that.

[ranunculus]

I've never been on a canal boat, but have learned a lot about it from "Canal Boat Diaries" with Robbie Cummings. That is a gently little TV show that I found on Acorn.