Wednesday 27 June 2018

Read in 2018 - 8: Narrow Margins

Narrow Margins
by Marie Browne

Surprise, surprise: another free ebook I found years ago on Amazon's Kindle shop!
It took me a few chapters to get into the story, but then I quite enjoyed the book and was looking forward to finding out what was going to happen next.

Marie Browne tells her own story here. She and her husband run their own successful business (IT support and project management, if I remember correctly) until their biggest client goes broke and leaves their bills unpaid.
This leads to the couple having to face an uncertain future, with only one thing being clear: Things can not stay as they are, and they can not keep the house.
The decision is made to sell up, buy a narrow boat and live on that.

How they chose a boat and turn it into a home (this takes many months), learn the ropes of moving the boat along without too much harm to themselves, the boat and others, adapt to life on the water, manage minor and major crises and eventually find they are happier than ever before in their lives is told in an unpretentious way, with a good portion of humour thrown in.
Not always the kind of humour that makes me laugh, but humour anyway. And you can tell the author is not a practised or "learned" writer; she rather describes the day-to-day happenings as if you'd be reading someone's blog or emails from a friend.

I liked the descriptions of life aboard the boat and, even though I have never travelled on one, I can imagine it well. I've often seen narrow boats on Ripon Canal and elsewhere.
Would it be for me? Hmm... not sure. I guess I'd miss the comfort and space of a "proper" flat, central heating and reliably hot showers, as well as the familiarity of going to "my" bakery on the corner, of seeing the neigbhours, friends and family I like on a regular basis.
It is certainly a different way of life, and I enjoyed reading about it.

I wish Marie Browne and her family all the best - whereever they may be these days.

Click here for a BBC article with pictures about Marie, the boat and the family's life on board.

8 comments:

  1. I have had holidays on the Thames and on the Norfolk Broads - lovely for a fortnight or so but for me much too restrictive for longer. It would be good this week in this weather unless midges struck.

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    1. I'd like a holiday on a house boat, but it is not planned anytime soon. In the book, midges do not feature (much), but spiders are apparently an everyday thing.

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  2. This does sound interesting but it is not free here. Still, it's only $2.99 so I am thinking about it. It would certainly be a glimpse of a life I know nothing about.

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    1. That was its appeal for me, too, Kristi. Marie Brown has written at least two more books about her life on a boat, but I have not downloaded them (yet).

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  3. My older sister and her husband have just this month moved back to a home on land after spending 20+ years on a sternwheeler on the Ohio River. My brother-in-law built three sternwheelers in his lifetime, the one they were living on was the smallest. How they did it that long, I don't know. My sister weaves rugs and had a small trailer on the banks of the river where she worked and big enough to hold her looms and supplies. Maybe she should now write a book about her experiences....hadn't thought of that before!

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    1. Your sister's life definitely sounds like material for a book - and I would make sure to read it, if you'd let us know about it through your blog :-)
      I hope they did not move back because of health issues or other unpleasant things.

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  4. I always preferred watching boats from the shore rather than being aboard, so not for me, I think! (well, not the real thing anyway!) ;)

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    1. I wouldn't mind a holidy on board a canal boat, but with someone responsible who knows what they're doing - I haven't got a clue how to steer the Things, or open and close a lock etc.!

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