Description
As seen through the eyes of this sympathetic outsider, the lives and social structures of the boat people are explored in detail to give a lively picture of a historic way of life dictated by the circumstances in which they lived. Despite it being 1941, for much of her trip the war is far away.
From Limehouse to Birmingham and on to the coalfields around Coventry, then by horse boat to Oxford and Lechlade, Wren Jane enters fully into the closed world of the canal people. This means days of intensely hard physical work but she determinedly sticks with it to emerge as a fledged narrow boat person herself.
The free spirits of the boating community in which she is placed shake Wren Jane’s personal beliefs to their foundations, accustomed as she is to a regulated way of life. The life of the boat person is one of constant toil bounded by the canal system, close to nature and cut off from the endless news of battles and military set-backs. But the way of life is so all-absorbing that Wren Jane barely notices this lack. By her trip’s end returning to the world of war and strict discipline (which one is actually the ‘real world’?) is a daunting prospect. She is left with deep misgivings about her life which will leave a permanent mark on her view of the world.
