The Cut, as England’s canals were universally known by their professionals, were still commercially busy in World War II. So a seagoing Wren sent to find out about the boats’ crews receives a shock. Despite it being 1941, for much of her trip the war is far away.

From Limehouse to Birmingham and on to the coalfields around Coventry, then by horse boat to Oxford and Lechlade, Wren Jane Beacon enters fully into the closed world and hard work of the canal people.

The free spirits of the boating community live isolated but independent lives close to nature. Seen through the eyes of this sympathetic outsider, their way of life comes alive, providing a historic picture. At the same time encountering it shakes Wren Jane Beacon’s own beliefs to their foundations, leaving her with deep, permanent misgivings about her life. By her trip’s end returning to the Navy and the Wrens’ world of war and conformity is a daunting prospect.