A novel way to live

Author Sarah Jasmon lifts the lid on life aboard a narrowboat on the Leeds-Liverpool Canal

It’s winter, and the ice on the canal is a foot thick. This means I can’t move the boat, can’t go and fill my water tank, can’t empty the toilet. I slipped on a pavement a couple of weeks ago and fractured my arm, so that’s now in plaster. And the generator has just refused to start. No water, no light, no heating apart from the wood burner. Thank goodness for the wood burner.

These were moments, as a single parent bringing up three children on a boat, which made life interesting. Our first few cold winters took me back to my 1970s childhood, waking up to frost patterns on the inside of the windows and running into the living room to dress in front of the fire. We made it through, though. That awful winter, I found someone to fix the generator, borrowed a PortaPotti from a friend, and the people who lived in a nearby bungalow let us run a double-length hosepipe from their outdoor tap to fill the water tank. And there was fun to be had, even in the middle of the various crises, taking a sledge into the village to get shopping and sliding down the middle of the icy canal. It was like being in a classic children’s novel.