In early 2009 a strange sort of business plan landed on the desk of a pinstriped bank manager. It had pictures of rats and moles in rowing boats and archaic quotes about Cleopatra''s barge. It asked for a £30,000 loan to buy a black-and-cream narrowboat and a small hoard of books.

The manager said no. Nevertheless The Book Barge opened six months later and enjoyed the happy patronage of local readers, a growing number of eccentrics and the odd moorhen.

Business wasn''t always easy, so one May morning owner Sarah Henshaw set off for six months chugging the length and breadth of the countryBooks were bartered for food, accommodation, bathroom facilities and cake. During the journey, the barge suffered a flooded engine, went out to sea, got banned from Bristol and, on several occasions, floated away altogether. This account follows the ebbs and flows of Sarah''s journey as she sought to make her vision of a floating bookshop a reality.

Format Häftad Omfång 272 sidor Språk Engelska Förlag Little, Brown Book Group Utgivningsdatum 2014-04-03 ISBN 9781472108050