Just before lockdown my sister, Carole, and I went to the Canal Museum near King’s Cross. It’s a small museum but packed with fascinating memorabilia. Best of all it contains three-quarters of a vintage narrow boat decorated with roses and castles painted by the boat people. Inside, the theme is continued in the decorated wall plates and jugs and water cans, mixed in with old framed photographs of the family. We were allowed to walk through the boat and pull down the folding bed, peer behind the pull-down table to the small larder cupboard, and admire the range which they would clean with black lead paste. Bad enough that these cramped living quarters were home to two to three boatwomen such as the trainees in my novel, but the ‘real’ boaters regularly had large families of six or even more kiddies (as they called them) in this tiny space. On top of that they had to carry the cargo that more often than not added to the never-ending work of keeping the boats clean. How the mothers in those days kept such spic-and-span boats, as well as their children, is beyond my imagination.
So how to do justice to all these hardworking, often very young girls and boatwomen, and the original boat people, in a subject I knew virtually nothing about? I began with the books on the reading list, but there were plenty of questions still unanswered.
A stroke of luck came from an introduction by Jo Bell, a poet who wrote the Foreword in the classic book Narrow Boat by L. T. C. Rolt, to a teacher and historian, James Tidy. Amazed, I learnt that he lives on a vintage narrow boat that was actually used by some of the trainee girls and women in the war! I commissioned him to read the novel and look out for any ‘howlers’ I may have made in my clumsy efforts to portray the workings of these boats and the details of the route the trainees took. He also answered various questions and sent me hundreds of black-and-white photographs of the girls in various stages of carrying and off-loading the cargo along the Grand Union Canal, and three more very helpful books! His input was invaluable.
As usual, I’m grateful to all those who were involved in the creation of this novel. First, as always, is Heather Holden Brown of HHB Agency. She’s not only a dream agent, keeping both the editor and this author very happy, but has become a dear friend over these past years. Then there’s my publishers, Avon, an imprint of HarperCollins, who won Imprint of the Year 2020. I’m not surprised, the way the team works so brilliantly on my behalf. I’m so lucky to have my hugely talented editor, Katie Loughnane, who unerringly knows my characters (almost!) as well as I do; Sabah Khan heads PR, and consistently gets me into national newspapers and radio shows; Ellie Pilcher, Marketing Manager, works effectively in social media; and those in the graphic art department design the superb covers for my books. I thank you all.
I make up the fourth member in two outstanding writing groups. The Diamonds are: Terri Fleming, Sue Mackender and Joanne Walsh, and the Vestas are: Gail Aldwin, Suzanne Goldring and Carol McGrath. We’re all published authors in different genres and are second to none at brainstorming as well as bringing our special skills to the table. We don’t hold back on critiquing each other’s chapters and I believe our novels are the better for it. And I haven’t even mentioned the laughs …
I’m so fortunate to have my own critique writing partner in the form of Alison Morton, thriller novelist with the successful and long-running alternate history ‘Roma Nova’ series. We both love reading one another’s novels in the early drafts, though the genres couldn’t be more opposite. But it works like magic, as our red pens are poised to pounce on any mistakes. Just as importantly, we always feel proud of each other’s successes.
Sadly, by the time I had completed the first draft of this novel my late husband, Edward Stanton, was too ill to read it. He’s always been marvellous at spotting errors, particularly with anything mechanical or military, not to mention those pesky anachronisms. I hope I’ve managed to uphold the high standard you always set me, Edward.
Reading List
The Amateur Boatwomen by Eily Gayford
Troubled Waters by Margaret Cornish
Idle Women by Susan Woolfitt
Maidens’ Trip by Emma Smith
Narrow Boat by L.T.C. Rolt
Ramlin Rose: The Boatwoman’s Story by Sheila Stewart
Grand Union Canal: From Brentford to Braunston by Ian J. Wilson
Waterways Guide 1: Grand Union, Oxford & the South East (pub. HarperCollins)
The Water Gipsies by A. P. Herbert (a novel pub. by Methuen’s Sixpennies in 1939)
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About the Author
MOLLY GREEN has travelled
