L.T.C. Rolt's fame rests on the fact that he was unique in producing works of literature from subject matter which had not before been considered the stuff of literature - engineering, canals, railways, steam engines, agricultural machinery and vintage cars - as demonstrated in his biographies of Brunel, Telford, Trevithick and the Stephensons. This work takes up the story from In Landscape with Machines. It tells of voyages through the secret green water-lanes of England and Wales, and of the beginning of his writing career with the publication of his book Narrow Boat.