At home, Im a cantankerous old git. On the boat, after a weeks cruising, Im just a cantankerous old git with dirty hair.
Steve Haywood has a problem. He doesnt know where he comes from. In the south, people think hes a northerner; in the north, they think hes from the south. Judged against global warming and the sad demise of Celebrity Big Brother, this hardly registers highly on the Richter scale of world disasters. But its enough to worry Steve. And its enough of an excuse for him to escape the routine of his life in London for a voyage of discovery along Englands inland waterways.
Travelling by traditional narrowboat, he heads north from Banbury in deepest Oxfordshire, through the former industrial wastelands of the now vibrantly modern Manchester, to the trendy affluence of Hebden Bridge at the centre of West Yorkshires ciabatta belt. With irrepressible humour he describes the history of the canals, his encounters with characters along the way, and the magic that makes Englands waterways so appealing.
