The material that I have pulled together for this collection has been gathering since the publication of Inside Rowing The Outside Handbook. It gathered, not with the purpose of producing a second collection, it just kind of gathered... ya know!

    Anyway it gathered until until, about a year ago, I realised that I nearly had enough stuff to “go again”.

     Once I started to think about producing a new book I decided to write some new material and also to finish off a sort of ongoing, often started, often discarded piece that had been started shortly after the publication of the first book. The piece in question is “A Tall Tale From The Towpath” and, whereas pretty well everything that I write could fall under that same heading, this was to be the big one. Well it ‘s definetly BIG. So well done to me for hitting at least one of my targets.

    It was meant to be a cross between the Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner and one of the Robert Service Ballads from the Klondyke such as The Shooting Of Dangerous Dan McGrew. and indeed, like many a mongrel, it may be very difficult to recognize any of the admirable characteristics of the parents in the offspring.

    There are also a few shorter pieces where I tried to get my old head into my old young head in mid-race mode and try and conjure up some of the mood swings that are experienced in race situations.

    One of the purposes of the whole Reservoir section of this site is to gauge from you, the surfer, whether there is any appetite among the rowing species for a further ‘in print’  collection from Yours Truly.

    I hope that you will enjoy some or all of the site and I’ll be glad to hear your feedback and reactions to what you find. Having said that, I will try to acknowledge and respond to any mails that come in but this whole venture is on a part time basis and I may not be able to.

    In the meantime I intend to update the site with new material as often as inspiration allows and as much as interest merits.

Yours

Barry.