Product Description

The hilarious true story of two pensioners and their whippet who sail from Stone in Staffordshire to Carcassonne in the South of France in a narrowboat ...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1170 in Books
• Published on: 2006-05-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 329 pages

Timothy West and Prunella Scales
'Pru and I found the book wonderfully entertaining. I read 'Narrow Dog' pretty well at one sitting...a lovely book'

Good Book Guide
'Written with the author's glorious sense of humour, this is one of those journeys you never want to end'

Joanna Lumley
'A stunning book - racy, chatty, touching, and very, very funny'

Customer Reviews

Interesting in parts
The whole time I was reading this book I was complaining to everyone who would listen about the rubbish writting style the author uses (which other reviewers have described in more detail). But I kept reading it and I'm not sure why. Some bits of it appealed to my sense of humor, such as moments when the author compares the collection of odd-balls he has just encountered to individuals one might mistakenly cast as film extras. But these moments were few and far between. There is also a lot of repetition, in terms of what the characters do each day and complain about. I am baffled by the glowing reviews that some have put for this book but I didn't think it was too bad either. If you come across it for less than a pound and just need something mildly entertaining to read then this might be your book.

I could not finish this book
This is one of the most frustrating and irritating books I have ever read.
Half the time I did not know what on earth he was going on about as he spoke in riddles or made allusions to things in the fantasy world in his head. Also there was a lot of repetition of the same sort of conversations about his dog - usally involving someone else who had a whippet too but it died.

I think the subject matter is fascinating but I could not finish this book.
I felt let down by it.

A jaunt through the human heart
This is a good read for anyone who enjoys a wry (dare I say northern?) sense of humour who wants a good summer read and to enjoy a sense of longing for a journey from their deckchair. The writer has a great style - he undermines himself and everything he sees and everyone he meets - a bit like what it is like being brought up in Lancashire! It's the simple and unverbose descriptions that make this a gentle, sunny and funny read. He's got the British vernacular really well ('Frenchmen fancy English ladies of a certain age, like Jane Birkin or Charlotte Rampling, and when they think they have spotted one they chuck their dredgers around like anything'). The descriptions of Jim the dog are evocative and delightful - you can feel his whiskers tickle your face as he licks it. His long-suffering partner - he expresses her various anxieties about crossing the Channel or navigating another difficult lock with that familiar worried rant and lashing-out that I recognise so well in myself. With no sign of guests for their party she paces about the place: 'We'll be disgraced...There's no one coming and it's half past six. And if they come they'll be awful and they won't like us. Another of your lunatic schemes has gone wrong!'. So, while the writing seems simple, it does indicate other deeper things, of the heart of human behaviour under pressure - whether it's 'guest anxiety' or real terror on the waves. And as for the French, he says it all: 'In England shops are normally open, and in France they are normally shut...The restaurant sells wine by the gallon, but that bit is shut' - come on, we've all been there.