Review of the trilogy by Richard Booth

Richard Booth writes:

Reg Thompson, a blacksmith at Wolverton Railway Works, was the head of a dysfunctional family, who abused his wife and eldest child, Michael, and drank to excess such that there was barely sufficient left to provide for decent meals.  It had not always been so, but his second child was severely disabled, and required his wife’s constant attention.  She, in turn, expected Michael to respond to her every demand with running the house. After a particularly frugal meal, Michael’s dog was blamed for stealing the pork chop that had been kept for Reg, who decreed the dog would have to go.  This proved to be the last straw for Michael.  He waited until all was quiet and, putting on a thick jumper and coat – it was a bitterly cold January night – sneaked out of the house intent on drowning himself in the canal.  His only sorrow was for his sister, whom he felt ashamed at leaving, in the knowledge that she may in future be the recipient of the abuse he had shouldered.  At the bridge by the Galleon Inn, he launched himself into the icy water.  But he had not reckoned on the splash being heard by the steerer of an approaching pair of boats …

The remainder of the trilogy is taken up with an account of Michael’s life on the boats, the three books relating to separate phases of his life but amounting to a continuous story.  I will not, for fear of harming anyone’s enjoyment, even attempt to hint at the content.  Suffice it to say that, for somebody who finds it difficult to pick up a book and actually read it from cover to cover, I found these books difficult to put down – always one was left wanting to know what happened next!  Maybe the excitement had worn off a little, or more likely I was growing tired of such intensive reading, but I did find the third book a little more difficult, the ending both abrupt and surprising.

However, whatever one thinks of Michael’s life, whether it could really happen or was just too good to be true, I believe the main strength of the story lies in the fact that it accurately portrays the lifestyle of the boatmen and their families, against a background of real events and the drift away from the boats after the Second World War.  The boating families are revealed as a close-knit and hard working community, showing huge compassion in times of difficulty yet great rivalry in their work.  They are not seen through rose-tinted spectacles as is frequently the case, perhaps the difficulties and harshness of the life are not dwelt on, but they are there nevertheless.

Anybody who is interested in the working life of the canals should read these books, and I can guarantee you will both thoroughly enjoy them and shed a tear or three!