Overview

From deep winter to late autumn, from east to west, Adrift takes the reader on a tour of the people, politics, history and wildlife of London's canals and rivers. Blending nature writing, social observation and memoir, Helen Babbs invites you on an eye-opening journey into a different side of the city. From Walthamstow Marsh in the east to Uxbridge in the west, Helen Babbs journeys along London's waterways on a canal boat called Pike, putting down roots for two weeks at a time before moving on. Taking in the River Lea and the Lee Navigation, the Regent's Canal and the Grand Union, she explores the London landscape in all its guises: marshland, wasteland, city centre and suburb. Adrift charts a year of Helen's life on Pike, exploring the changes wreaked by the seasons as well as by developers, and recounting the practical trials of living aboard. It is a story of mapping and discovery, of escape and opting out, but also of making connections and finding home. Just as the coots and cormorants dodge the detritus of a large city, so too does Helen wend through the beauty and the dirt to reveal an intimate and unusual portrait of London and of life.

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9781785781278

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Reviews

'Babbs is an excellent nature writer, evoking the lives and emotions tied to the water. Charming' -- Steven Cooper Waterstones Events Manager, The Bookseller

'Adrift is an engaging introduction to living on a narrow boat, held together with atmospheric descriptions of reconnecting with life's simple pleasures ... It is at its best when capturing the transition from a life on land to a life on board, as well as mapping the evolving relationship between urban building developments and the canal's ecology.' -- Times Literary Supplement 'Babbs is an excellent nature writer, evoking the lives and emotions tied to the water. Charming' -- Steven Cooper Waterstones Events Manager, The Bookseller 'A compelling exploration of river living' Homes and Gardens 'One of the best waterways books for decades' Waterways World 'A treat ... Babbs's effortless prose is tight and lyrical, moseying along at a calm, steady pace, but there are moments both barbed and cutting ... A serious and fascinating book' Hackney Citizen 'Chapter after chapter of utterly captivating prose' Caught by the River 'Waterways writing at its finest: the breathtaking, boat-eulogising Adrift.' -- @TheBookBarge

'Babbs is an excellent nature writer, evoking the lives and emotions tied to the water. Charming' -- Steven Cooper * Waterstones Events Manager, The Bookseller * 'One of the best waterways books for decades' * Waterways World * 'Adrift is an engaging introduction to living on a narrow boat, held together with atmospheric descriptions of reconnecting with life's simple pleasures ... It is at its best when capturing the transition from a life on land to a life on board, as well as mapping the evolving relationship between urban building developments and the canal's ecology.' -- Times Literary Supplement 'A compelling exploration of river living' * Homes and Gardens * 'A treat ... Babbs's effortless prose is tight and lyrical, moseying along at a calm, steady pace, but there are moments both barbed and cutting ... A serious and fascinating book' * Hackney Citizen * 'Chapter after chapter of utterly captivating prose' * Caught by the River * 'Waterways writing at its finest: the breathtaking, boat-eulogising Adrift.' -- @TheBookBarge

Author Information

Helen Babbs is a writer and journalist. Her work has been published by the BBC, Guardian, Telegraph, New Statesman and Time Out, among others. Helen's first book - My Garden, the City and Me, about urban nature and the glory of growing things - was published in 2011 and nominated for two garden writing awards.

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