Margaret Cornish

Cornish was one of the almost (but not quite) un-remembered women who volunteered to work the canal boats carrying cargo throughout Britain during World War 2. She has written about that experience in her 'Troubled Waters: Memoirs of a Canal Boatwoman'. This however is a work of imagination, of tales gathered from those days and places. In a sense it's lightweight stuff, simple stories woven together around the life and recollections of three of the wartime boatwomen. But there's something compelling about canal stories, the completeness of that world that is apart from (but invisibly alongside) everyday existence.

I can't think of many other books based around canal-life. Simenon based a story around it in his 'Maigret Meets a Milord' (reissued as 'Lock 14'). He had spent a few years living aboard a canal boat and wrote about it with some authority. For those with the taste for it this is a satisfying story, with one proviso. Cornish makes no concessions to readers with no acquaintance with the terminology, or some sense of how canal boats and locks work. So the first-time reader is advised to have a reference work ready, or (if they can find it) read Cornish's 'Troubled Waters' first.… (mere)