Fruit Flies Like a Banana

Review by Philip Blazdell

"A search for the soul of England? What planet was I living on? I might just as well have gone in search of a new design of wheelie bin. Or the perfect pork pie."

When Steve Haywood hits 50, he is galvanised into action. Exploring the English canals on his trusty narrowboat Justice, and the countryside in his classic Triumph Herald, he attempts to delve into what it is that makes the English so, well, English.

The journey itself makes a engaging story and is both a melancholic lament for the loss of so much which was good about England and a pray of hope for future generations. Interwoven with some of the most amusing, and brutually honest observations about England, is the story of the birth of the Triumph Herald and the engineer who made it possible, and the story of Tom and Angela Rolt, who founded the Inland Waterways Association (and essentially kick-started tourism on England's canals).

Haywood has a great eye for all things English and captures brilliantly the often contradictory passions which define the country: witness our romantic approval or Romany painted caravans and our mean-minded hostility to Roma asylum seekers, our boasted celebrations of eccentricity and the tendency of people on bridges to spit or throw stones at boaters. He also lays out an eloquent and wonderfully well-researched thesis on the decline of British industry and how this continues to shape us as a nation. This alone is worth the cover price of the book.

Yet this is far from being a gloomy book, and it's fascinating, informative and frequently very funny. The writer has a pleasantly idiosyncratic take on things, and an engaging way of expressing it. For example: "In the past the waterways were the preserve of hippies who couldn't quite accept that the 1960s had finished, and enthusiasts who were certain that the 1760s hadn't," and "Decisions are things that just happen to you while you're working out what to do next."

For reasons which I can't really put my finger on (despite my obvious love of England and some memorable holidays spent pottering about on canals) I found this book deeply engaging. I started reading it one afternoon and couldn't go to bed until I had finished it. It's so full of pithy observations, quirky historical facts, eloquent descriptions of architecture and places, wonderful recipes and such weird and wonderful characters that it's impossible not to be charmed by this book. You never know, you may even feel inclined to rent a narrow boat yourself after reading this and experience some of the things the author describes at first hand.

• Fruit Flies Like a Banana by Steve Haywood