The Longest Trench

Paperback £6.99; ISBN 978-1-909551-47-3; April 2014;  SGM Publishing
Digital

After a couple of years absence, ‘Geoffrey Lewis’ (S G Miles’ well-known nom de plume) is back with a new tale of England’s canals. With the enormous interest sparked by the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War, he has been inspired to look at that dark and dangerous time for the boating families, and the result is this touching story of a romance carried on against those difficult times.

The Longest Trench tells a story of Britain’s canals between August 1914 and November 1918. It is the story of two families, working their boats through the years of conflict, maybe not in the front line but nonetheless fighting for victory in their own way in the world they knew best, keeping the supplies moving not just of arms and ammunition for the fighting forces but of raw materials and fuel to the factories, and of food for the working population.

Careful research and Mr Lewis’ own knowledge of the canals make this novel a realistic picture of the life of the boating people in the days of horse-drawn narrowboats, and once again his characters become real people whose fortunes matter to his ardent readers: Joy and sadness meet them along the way as news from the various theatres of war is received, while the burgeoning romance between a boy and girl carries us along towards Armistice Day…

Through two World Wars the people of the canals, men women and children alike, worked with little thanks or reward, making an incalculable contribution to the eventual victories. Their efforts received no official recognition until a plaque was unveiled by Farmer’s Bridge Junction in Birmingham, in May 2013.