Jess Carter and the Oil Boat

by Geoffrey Lewis

Paperback £6.99; ISBN 978-0-9564536-1-7; June 2010; SGM Publishing
Digital

Jess Carter and the Oil Boat>Jess Carter and the Bolinder>Jess Carter and the Rodneys

Continuing his fascination with the working days of Britain’s waterways, and following the success of such books as Starlight and the Michael Baker series, Geoffrey Lewis has turned his attention to a story for younger readers.

Jess Carter and the Oil Boat takes us from the industrial gloom of the Black Country to the wide expanse of the Manchester Ship Canal, via the pastoral landscapes of Shropshire and Cheshire, on board a horse-drawn tanker boat of Thomas Clayton (Oldbury) Ltd. The family on board, Annie Kain, a widowed boatwoman and her three children, pick up a mysterious stranger whom they find sleeping rough under a railway bridge in Tipton. Taking sympathy on his plight, she takes him along for the trip, despite the disagreement of her fifteen-year-old son, who is the nominal captain of the boat.

The stranger, a thirteen-year-old boy of mixed race descent, does his best to fit with the work and life on the boat, but the older boy’s resentment at his presence quickly causes tension to flare between them… Jess Carter and the Oil Boat tells the story of that one trip to load oil at the Stanlow refinery, on the ship canal, and back to Birmingham, in the spring of 1939.  Adventures along the way as Jesse learns about a world he has only glimpsed before add spice to this fascinating tale of life ‘on the cut’ in the months immediately before the Second World War. And the half-caste boy’s own background, the reasons behind his lone life on the streets, are slowly revealed as the trip progresses…

Intended for children of maybe 10+ with a competent reading standard, Jess Carter is not only a story which will hold the attention and keep any reader glued to the page, but it is an interesting and historically-accurate introduction to the way of life of the working boat-people – a way of life which is now gone forever. Mr Lewis’ research has been as thorough as ever, a fact which his growing following of readers will be familiar with from his previous canal novels, and the authentic background of the Stanlow Oil traffic on the Shropshire Union Canal lends credibility to his tale.

Exciting, melancholy and uplifting in turns,is sure to appeal to young and old alike. Children will thrill to the daring rescue on the Ship Canal and other points of high drama, while older readers will appreciate a captivating story set against a true-to-life world of days gone by. And Mr Lewis’ enthusiastic band of adult readers are proving just as keen as their children to add this book to their collections!

Jess Carter and the Oil Boat>Jess Carter and the Bolinder>Jess Carter and the Rodneys

I love reading a good book