The Skipper & Her Mate: Ten years on Irish Waters. by Nicki Griffin.

This is a book about people, boats and wildlife on the Irish Waterways. Told from the perspective of a woman with only a week’s hire-boat experience learning to drive a vintage timber cruiser, it is a journey through rivers and canals, and an apprenticeship in the ways of boating among a vibrant community of new and diverse people. When Nicki Griffin started boating in 2000, the inland waterways were occupied by older family boats. In the years to follow she would witness these being replaced by larger cruisers and ‘gin-palaces’, changing the character of the Irish Waterways, and threatening what was, for many, a unique and special way of life. Following in the wake of such works as Theo Dorgan’s ‘Sailing for Home’ and ‘Time on the Ocean’ and Dick Warner’s television shows, ‘The Skipper & Her Mate’ will appeal to the novice, the river rat and non-boater alike. Nicki Griffin has been writing a very popular column for Inland Waterways News since 2002. The Skipper & Her Mate is her first book. 233p Paperback 215x135x20mm