My newest travel memoir is out now!

What do you do when you plan a summer boat trip and the canal runs out of water? This is what happened to Val and her partner, Koos, when they set off from the Netherlands on their barge, Hennie Ha, in the summer of 2017. Their goal was the Somme, but water shortages in Belgium forced them to turn back and take a different route.

What followed was a journey of numerous unexpected sidesteps that took them to many of the towns and villages along the First World War’s Western Front. The holiday was both magical and poignant, influenced as it was by what they saw and learned about the history of the region. With reminders of the war wherever they travelled, it became a canal cruise of special significance.

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Buy the book here

Slideshow of images from my latest release Sidesteps to the Somme on the Shoe: Travels by Barge along the Western Front