Book excerpt: 'Haywood imprints his inimitable humour on his descriptions of the people and places he meets along the way.' – BBC Countryfile magazine 'He conjures up a picture of a different world, filled with interesting and eccentric people. A cross-section of the best of middle England, in fact.' – The Oxford Times Steve Haywood has been cruising the inland waterways for fifty years, and has amassed a following of readers keen to hear about his travelling tales on Britain's beautiful canals and rivers. His previously published books – Narrowboat Dreams, One Man and a Narrowboat, Too Narrow to Swing a Cat and Narrowboat Nomads – have all been hugely enjoyed by those with a desire for a narrowboat narrative told in Steve's witty, charming style. Tales from the Tillerman is Steve's next title and is both his tribute to Britain's canals, rivers and countryside and a celebration of Britishness in all its eccentric glory. Unlike Steve's previous titles, which have each focussed on one particular journey that Steve has taken, Tales from the Tillerman is casting the net wider and drawing from his full fifty years of experience, recounting the many hair-raising escapades he's had up and down the country and reflecting on how the country and the cruising landscape has changed in those fifty years. Anecdotes and light-hearted rants aplenty, mixed with some tall tales and a smattering of the nostalgic, in Tales from the Tillerman you'll be thoroughly entertained as a middle-aged man (oh, go on then, an old one) reflects on his long love affair with boats and waterways, contemplating their importance to his life and how they've changed it.