Narrow Dog to Wigan Pier

Book excerpt: At seventy-five, Terry and Monica Darlington had done everything they could think of doing, including building a business, becoming athletes and running a literary society. Lately they had become boating adventurers and Terry a bestselling writer. But in their Midlands canal town in November, life was looking dull and short on surprises. Then their famous canal boat was destroyed by fire. Within a few days they had bought a new one and they headed north in the Phyllis May 2 - to Liverpool, Lancaster, York, the Pennines and Wigan Pier. Terry recorded the journey and alongside it the story of his life and his marriage and his whippet Jim, with a broken ear like a flat cap, and Monica's whippet Jess, the Flying Catastrophe. Funny, affecting and beautifully told, this story brims with canals and rivers and whippets, and adventures all over the world, and the famous and fascinating people the Darlingtons have met. It's another classic Narrow Dog book.