Jess Carter and the Bolinder

This second canal story for younger readers picks up the tale of young Jess Carter where the first book left off. We go with Jess and Luke Kain to Uxbridge in the spring of 1939, where their new narrowboat is being built, and then travel with them as they make their way back to Birmingham where Luke's mother and sisters await them. Along the way, we see Jess settling happily into the new life he has discovered on England's canals, and his relationship with Luke becoming like brothers as they struggle with the complications of handling a diesel-powered boat. Their inexperience is compounded by mechanical difficulties – and then they meet a friendly but vaguely mysterious Dutchman, travelling the canals for his Amsterdam newspaper...