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Review of Water Gypsies by Annie Murray. Not an audio book, please disregard specific criteria!
ISBN 0330492144 Paperback novel- 458 pages. Published by MacMillan in 2004. Cover price £6.99
The Plot
Water Gypsies is a modern fiction novel by popular female author Annie Murray. The story is set in 1942 and follows the life of narrowboat skipper's wife, Maryann Bartholomew. Maryann and her husband Joel work the canal system around Birmingham in their narrowboat Theodore and butty, Esther Jane . The life is a hard one, loads to be collected and delivered, children to raise and care for, all in the confines of a seven by nine foot narrowboat boater's cabin.
Maryann had a life of suffering as a child growing up in Birmingham and her past often comes back to haunt her. She has recurring nightmares of the horrors she faced at the hands of her childhood tormentor, her step father, Norman Griffin. Life with
Joel has it's high points, but for a girl not brought up on the canals, Maryann finds the hard work and almost constant childbearing very hard to cope with.
One bright spot in Maryann's life is her friend Nancy who has married Joel brother, Darius. Nancy and Darius also work the canals and although the two couples work means that they do not meet up often, when they do Maryann is in her element.
Tragedy strikes when Nancy is killed in a freak accident at a lock, Maryann and Joel take on Nancy's children, meaning that Maryann has six youngsters to care for. She also finds that she is pregnant again and takes matters into her own hands with drastic results. This event is closely followed by Joel injuring himself and being unable to work for a long period of time. Rather than lose their business, Maryann agrees to take on a pair of 'Idle Women', Dot and Sylvia. The haulage business carries on as near to normal as possible but Maryann is constantly bothered by a feeling of being watched. As the story unfolds events take a sinister turn and more I will not reveal here for fear of spoiling the book for others!
Notes for non narrowboaters!
A narrowboat with no power is called a butty and this is towed by a powered boat. In the days before boats were fitted with engines, the narrowboats would have been towed by horses. Maryann's narrowboat is powered by a diesel engine.
A boatman's cabin is the living accommodation on a working narrowboat. The boats are almost 7 feet wide, (6'10” to be precise !) as little room as possible was taken up for living space in order to carry more cargo.
“The Idle Women” was the nickname given to female volunteers who worked the canal system during the second world war.
The author
Annie Murray was born in 1961. She grew up in Berkshire and moved to Birmingham when she started her first job. She is married and has four children, she and her family now live in Reading. Annie Murray won a short story competition run by “She” magazine and Granada Television in conjunction with “This Morning” in 1991. She was signed up by a literary agent and in 1992 wrote her first novel. Annie Murray has written twelve novels to date, with a thirteenth due out this year. She writes about the canal system around Birmingham, an area she is very familiar with, having lived in Dingle, close to the canal. On her website, Annie mentions that she had the chance to live and work on a narrowboat for a while which gave her an insight into canal life. More information about Annie Murray can be found on her website along with a list of her other novels.
www.anniemurray.co.uk/index.html
Price, publisher information and availability
Cover price £6.99 Available from www.amazon.co.uk from £2.00 new or 0.01p used
Publisher www.panmacmillan.com
Pan MacMillan 20 New Wharf Road London N1 9RR
My thoughts and conclusion
I love this book! I live part of the year on a narrowboat myself, although not a working boat and love the inland waterways and the lifestyle. “Water Gypsies” is set in an area I know well and there is something rather thrilling about reading of places such as Sutton Stop, Braunston and Gas Street Basin, knowing that I've been to them on my boat! The author's descriptions of boat handling and the canals themselves are very factual and true to life.
The storyline is not complex but fairly gripping, with just enough twists and turns to keep readers enthralled. The characters are well drawn and believable, whilst the descriptions of the canals and canal life are very realistic. For me the narrowboat element is the main attraction, but I see no reason why others would not enjoy this books. In my opinion, it has everything, tragedy, drama, sinister characters, light humour and family life. If you want an entertaining yet very human novel, give Water Gypsies a try, I heartily recommend it!
It is 1942 and after a childhood of suffering in Birmingham Maryann Bartholomew has ... more
built a life of happiness and safety with her husband Joel and their children working the canals on his narrowboat the Esther Jane. But the back-breaking work and c...
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