A Girl at the Tiller

"A Girl at the Tiller" by Geoffrey Lewis

"With the outbreak of peace in 1945, life on the Grand Union Canal seems fit to settle back into its steady pre-war pattern – but change is on the way! With a Labour government, the prospect of nationalistion brings hopes of new investment, better maintainance for the canals; but before that can happen, the winter of 1947, the big freeze, strikes.

In this sequel to A Boy Off The Bank, the familiar characters of Michael and Ginny, Alby Baker and the boating families – the Hanneys, the Caplins – continue their lives in peacetime Britain, plying their trade despite the deteriorating state of the waterways. And new faces appear, one of whom is to have a greater impact on the crew of the Sycamore and the Antrim than they could ever guess.

The pleasures and hardships of a working life on the canals, the occasional joy or tragedy, form the backdrop of a deeply human tale in which the reader becomes enmeshed in the lives of his characters."