The Worst Journey in the Midlands

This text chronicles Sam Llewellyn's journey form Llandiloes on the River Severn down through the canals of the Midlands to London. He and his open rowing-boat, the Magdalen, travelled through Worcester, Oxford and the suburbs during the wettest October on record.

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'In order to test a wooden boat's soundness, you stab it with a bradawl. Forty stabs later, Magdalen looked like a colander. It was possible to read a paperback under her upturned hull without artificial light.' Sam Llewellyn is attempting to make his way from the depths of Wales to far-off London. In a rowing boat. Courageously facing the perils of the British canals, Sam and his recently repaired craft venture forth into the wettest October on record. This hilarious account of problematic weirs, eccentric anglers, and Sam's mysterious blue skin condition contains surprises and laughs aplenty as man and boat try to complete their epic month-long rowing odyssey.