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Look Inside | Reading Guide
Reading Guide
Mar 25, 2008 | ISBN 9780385342087 Buy
Mar 25, 2008 | ISBN 9780440337560 Buy
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Mar 25, 2008 | ISBN 9780385342087
Mar 25, 2008 | ISBN 9780440337560
"We could bore ourselves to death, drink ourselves to death, or have a bit of an adventure…" It was absurd. It was foolhardy. And it was glorious. When they retired, Terry Darlington and his somewhat saner wife Monica—together with their dog, a whippet named Jim—chucked their earthbound life and set out in an utterly unseaworthy sixty-foot canal narrowboat across the notoriously treacherous English Channel and down to the South of France. Aboard the Phyllis May, you’ll dive through six-foot waves in the Channel and be swept down the terrible Rhône. You’ll meet the French nobody meets—poets, captains, scholars, madmen; they all want to know the couple on the painted boat and their narrow dog. You’ll visit the France nobody knows—the backwaters of Flanders, the canals beneath Paris, and the forbidden routes to the wine-dark Mediterranean Sea. Aliens, trolls, gongoozlers, killer fish, and the walking dead all stand between our two-person, one-whippet crew and their goal: the ancient, many-towered city of Carcassonne.A tale of travel, travail, dubious wine, a balky pump, and a boat built for only a few feet of water, this exuberantly inventive and hugely entertaining odyssey of the spirit, senses, and heart will enchant lovers of France, England, and all that lies between.
The hilarious and true story of two senior-citizens and their whippet dog who hatch, plan and carry out a “lunatic scheme” to sail from Stone in Staffordshire to Carcassonne in the South of France.
Terry Darlington was raised in Wales. He likes boating but doesn’t know much about it. Monica Darlington has run thirty marathons and leaps tall buildings in a single bound. She likes boating. Brynula Great Expectations (Jim) is sprung from a… More about Terry Darlington
"Written with the author’s glorious sense of humor, this is one of those journeys you never want to end."—Good Book Guide, UK“A rich and winning comic debut, destined to become a classic.”—Daily Telegraph, UK“One of the most hilarious travel memoirs ever written!”—Booklist
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