History lesson, tourist guide and storytelling all rolled into one.  Archie Satterfield’s fascinating account of the birth, death and re-birth of the canals and waterways of Western Europe is compulsive reading.

Whether you just enjoy the read, or whether you are considering a canal boat holiday, or perhaps possibly life on a canal boat, this book is an entertaining and resourceful guide.  Covering the history of canals and their current revival in the tourist industry, Archie gives wonderfully vivid accounts of the routes, what to do, where to go, what not to miss and how to buy and operate a canal boat/barge.

“Manmade waterways for transportation are probably older than recorded history. Man shares with the beaver a basic need to control flowing water and use it for his own purposes. According to most sources, the earliest canal on record was build about 4,000 B.C. by King Menes of Egypt.”

Canals in the United Kingdom were instrumental in the rapid onslaught of the industrial revolution, allowing the easy transportation of coal and iron and other heavy raw materials needed to run factories and power stations.  The invention of the internal combustion engine and the subsequent development of the road and rail networks across the country, and inevitably over the whole of Europe, sounded the death knell for the canals and waterways.

Latterly, these awesomely engineered aquatic routes across the countryside have been re-born; the insatiable appetite of the ‘tourist’ has led to heavy investment in canals and waterways all over Western Europe.

Why not take a trip along the le Marne Canal in France…..an added attraction being the ‘champagne route’ … “it is a good idea to do some research on how champagne is made before departing. Opportunities to taste it will present themselves as you travel through, with stops at wineries.”     

Or how about the waterway system on the Brittany Pensinsular, built by Napoleon during his wars with Britain, and recently renovated with money from the national and local governments, which has also led to the resurfacing of the lock keepers, who live in small cottages alongside the lock gates.

This book is a nostalgic look at our heritage and Archie Satterfield gives us a wonderful perspective of the many canals and waterways that are still in existence today.  Reading Archie’s book will have you wanting to get your feet wet and climb aboard one of the many beautiful canal boats still proudly plying these routes.

But even if you don’t want to yourself, you can be an armchair sailor and bask in Archie’s tales of life on still waters.