Book publishing in Audlem

Work is just starting on book publisher CanalBookShop's fifth book.

This imprint of Audlem Mill specialises, not surprisingly, in canal related books, and the books have received excellent reviews in the specialist waterways press.

In July, "Shropshire Union Fly-Boats" was published, and one reviewer, the highly respected Hugh Potter of Waterways World magazine, said that it was one of the best canal books he has ever reviewed – and he has been doing this for 40 years!

The book is the boating autobiography of Jack Roberts (who lived at Barbridge, Grindley Brook and Whitchurch), describing his work on horse-drawn cargo boats up to 1921, going to Shrewsbury, Birmingham, Ellesmere Port, Newtown and Welshpool, much on canals closed 70 or more years ago.

"Historic Working Narrow Boats Today", published just over two years ago, has sold nearly 500 copies, a high number for a specialist book.

It has illustrations of nearly 500 former canal working boats (the type that gather in Audlem over the last weekend in July), and is regarded by enthusiasts as the standard book on the subject. It was written by Peter Silvester of Audlem Mill, and illustrated by David Williams, a former lock volunteer here at Audlem, but still often seen here.

"Journeys of the Swan" by John Liley is a reprint of one of the classic canal books, first published in 1971, describing the author's journeys around the English canals in a (then) 30 year old ex-working boat. Audlem artist Sheila M Webster's superb illustrations feature prominently in "A Sketch of Time" – she sketched all 35 boats that attended the boat gathering here in July 2012, and they form the basis of this book.

The book on which work has just started is another canal classic – a reprint of "Green & Silver" by LTC Rolt, first published in 1949, but not available in Britain for nearly 50 years. It describes voyages along the Irish canals in 1949 by Tom and Angela Rolt. Tom is best known for saving the Talyllyn Railway in mid-Wales (the world's first preserved railway) in 1950, and as co-founder of the Inland Waterways Association in 1946.

Though published in Audlem, CanalBookShop books are also sold in specialist bookshops around the country, including the National Waterways Museum in Ellesmere Port. More canal books are planned, keeping us at Audlem Mill very busy well into the future!

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