Narrow Dog to Carcassonne: Two Foolish People, One Odd Dog, an English Canal Boat...and the Adventure of a Lifetime

I read a lot of travel books and especially a lot of books about travel or living in France. This is, hands-down, one of the top 3 I've ever read, and I can't remember what the other two are! This is funny! It's honest. It's sometimes exciting. The writing is much better than that of most travel tales, by far! Mr. Darlington is a poet, and he's obviously had that wonderful sort of British education that sends one off into life with a head full of poetry as well as facts. This book is sometimes a poem, without a spare word. He makes his adventures come alive. He makes us want to be friends with him and his wife, Monica, and even with Jim the "narrow dog." I am really looking forward to the publication next year of his book about traveling the the southern U.S. Mr. Darlington, I hope you keep writing for a long time!

I must admit that I have been to the UK and have been on a narrow boat. This book is hilarious, warm, endearing and I cannot wait to get the new book. Anyone who has ever traveled, either with a dog or children to someplace completely unfamiliar will appreciate the author's experiences. If you have been on one of the uniquely British narrowboats you are even more enraptured with the book. If you have been on a motorhome for a long trip, especially with children, you will appreciate Jim (the narrow dog). I must admit that Americans will have trouble with some of the English usage but it is well worth it. Wonderful book, wonderful story, wonderful people. WH

We've driven a barge to Carcassonne and the auther captures the experience. However, it was his sense if humor that kept us helpless.

If you like travel and/or boats and/or dogs and/or a writer with humor and quotes from classics to films, this book will be right up your...canal. Funny and disarming, showing the downside moments as well as the champagne highs of taking a narrowboat across the Channel and, even more scaringly, down through France, not a dull page in the lot. I can't wait to see what happens when Terry and Monica and Jim the Narrow Dog come to my home country in the US. I read it in two sittings. BarbV

It takes a few pages to catch on to the authors style and sense of humor but is well worth the effort because you will be taken on an unusual journey with the author, his wife and their dog and treated to his unique sense of the world and the people he encounters. The book is overflowing with humor, charm, wit and pathos. I finished it too quickly and now I am eagerly waiting for the next one.