| 
 enlarge | Author: Terry Darlington
Publisher: Bantam Press
Category: Book
List Price: £14.99
Buy Used: £2.17
You Save: £12.82 (86%)
Used (16) from £2.17
Avg. Customer Rating:  89 reviews
Sales Rank: 75843
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 329
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.6
Dimensions (in): 8.5 x 5.6 x 1.4
ISBN: 0593053117
EAN: 9780593053119
ASIN: 0593053117
Publication Date: June 1, 2005
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
|
| Customer Reviews:
 Narrow Dog to Carcassonne January 22, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Clearly not everyones cup of tea from the few adverse comments, but I was loaned the book, read it and enjoyed it so much I have just bought a copy of my own!
The style is unusual but grows on you, and you have to pay attention and think, but despite that its entertaining, original, educational, funny and very cleverly put together.
I have even ordered their next book not out until April. I wait with anticipation.
What more can I say? Buy it if only so the Whippet gets a decent meal.
Read in one go January 1, 2008
Only now in 2008 have I made the acquaintance of the book. It is a light, entertaining, doggy orientated travelogue. I enjoyed it more as the pages turned, as I travelled with the Darlington's and Jim to Carcassonne.For me it is the type of book where I would delight to me the owner's of the Phyllis May, Jim too of course; the histoire becomes so personal.
 boring December 28, 2007
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
sorry but i found this book boring . some interesting boating facts but i found the book 'wishy washy'
Whippets Rule, Au Quai. December 5, 2007
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
I enjoyed this book tremendously. In travel writing, you need a good gimmick and a new voice. Terry Darlington has both, although as a whippet owner myself, it's sad to think of poor Jim as a gimmick. Dialogue as stream-of-consciousness took a page or two to translate into style, but worked well. Dialogue in travel memoirs is in reality unremembered, so this form of thought transferrence brought the message across well without having to make up words that weren't actually said. The fact that I was at sea with the french literary references mattered little - I was content to be educated and occasionally moved.
I will read this book again, and look forward to the next one
 Strange but funny November 19, 2007
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
This is my mother's favourite book, and I have to say that I don't quite share her enthusiasm, although it was amusing enough at times. This is the true story of Darlington and his wife, both retirees, who own a narrow boat which they use to pootle up and down the waterways of the black country. They also have a very nervous dog which travels with them with great reluctance and spends a lot of time hyperventilating. For some strange reason one day they take it into their heads that the thing to do would be to take the narrow boat through England, across the channel and down through France. This is, if you know anything at all about narrow boats, extremely dangerous. They are not made for waves, they are about as good at steering as a child in a bumper car, and they are so heavy they sink during times of adversity. The book is the tale of their ill conceived oddity.
At times it is very funny, and is always very honest. It is however written in an singularly peculiar style which I found rather trying and incredibly hard to get into. It was at worst like reading a very poor translation, at best quirky, and almost always annoying. If you can get past the style issues, it is a good book, but you really have to work at it.
|
|
|
