Fruit Flies Like a Banana

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What a painful read - Rated
There's something majestic and appealing about life on the canals and although I can see Steve Haywards passion in his words, I couldn't wait to finish the book. It wasn't enjoyable to read. I found the book bland and too disjointed. His references and his opinions of the dramas of the IWA read at times like filler in an already lean storyline.

What a disappointment - Rated
Easily the worst book I have read in a very long time.
I was expecting, at worst, a twee travelogue, at best a ripping yarn of life on the road and water.
Instead a dreary account of boaty & car-ry things, interspersed with unnecessary, entrenched opinion, and the lives of key players in the history of inland waterway restoration replayed in a way that begs the only question "who cares?"
Only sheer bloody-minded determination kept me going to the end (although the best is saved to last with the account of the Shapness to Bristol crossing)

Canals and boaters as they really are - Rated
What an excellent book! There are a number of books about the experience of boating on England's canals and rivers written by enthusiasts, and some written by professional journalists, but Steve Hayward is the first in modern times (since LTC Rolt, in fact) to be both well informed about waterways and a professional writer.

This book is a must-read for anyone who wants to know what canals and boaters are really like, and for all those already infected by the bug but presently deprived of being on the water.

I read it from cover to cover within 24 hours of getting it, and the only reason I'm not re-reading it right now is because my wife has stolen it.