Terry and Monica Darlington and Jim the whippet
sail the waterways on their traditional English narrowboat Phyllis May.
Terry writes books about their journeys, Monica acts as his manager, and
Jim acts as their dog.
Narrow Dog to Carcassonne, about a voyage through France, was published in 2005 and has sold 140,000 copies. It has been translated into German and Polish and will appear the US in the spring of 2008.
Narrow Dog to Indian River, about a voyage from Virginia to Florida, will be published in the spring of 2008 and in the US a year later.
Terry Darlington
Terry Darlington was brought up in Pembroke Dock between an oil terminal and a Coastal Command seaplane base – a poor choice of location during the Second World War. He survived and went to Oxford, where he passed unnoticed.
In Stone, Staffordshire, he founded Research Associates, the international research firm, and Stone Master Marathoners, the running club.
Like many Welshmen, Terry is talkative and confiding, ill at ease with practical matters, and liable to linger in public houses. He likes boating but knows nothing about it.
Monica Darlington
Monica Darlington’s father was a gardener and her mother a housemaid, or perhaps it was the other way round.
She was Beauty Queen of Radnorshire, has a first class degree in French, ran a marathon in three and a half hours when she was fifty, and leaps tall buildings with a single bound. She is a lady without blemish, except she can be a bit bossy.
She quite likes boating but knows nothing about it.
Jim
Brynula Great Expectations (Jim) is sprung from a long line of dogs with ridiculous names.
Jim can run at forty miles an hour. He is cowardly, thieving, and disrespectful, and hates boating.