This illustrated volume is exceptionally researched. Robert Davies has compiled interviews with boat people and the people who worked the inland waterways during the final decades of commercial canal carrying, capturing the flavour of this era. Often whole families worked on the great boats and lived in the tiny cabins at the back. Among the people interviewed are those who worked the narrow canals from London through the Midlands, to Stoke on Trent and Middlewich, and people who worked for big companies such as Grand Union Canal Carrying Co., as well as for the little George and Mathews. The book spans the 1930s-'60s, a time when transport technology saw huge changes, and looks issues such as the operating of ice boats and the use of horse power as well as the experiences of the people themselves.