The landscape reflects the fortunes of its inhabitants – the characters feel with each tide "the patches, strains and gaps in their craft, as if they were weak places in their own bodies", and when Nenna attempts a disastrous reconciliation with her husband, there is a predictably violent storm. Their dwelling is determined by something in their characters: 'They aspired towards the Chelsea shore…. She habitually moved in a kind of nautical crawl, with her stomach close to the deck, as though close-furled and ready for dirty weather. There is one character who made this book work for me, and it is Nenna’s 6-year old daughter, Tilda.

The boats are still there along Cheyne Walk, and larger and more numerous (and more colourful) than they were in the 1960’s. For all the characters, the river’s movements are a constant part of their lives, whether they welcome it or even realise it or not.

Although she had become a native of the boats, and pitied the tideless and ratless life of the Chelsea inhabitants, she respected the water and knew that one could die within sight of the Embankment. It came to her that it was wrong to pray for anything simply because you felt you needed it personally. In 2012, The Observer named her final novel, The Blue Flower, as one of "the ten best historical novels".

I have always been drawn to water, and even lived at sea for a while (I was not happy for other reasons, but I was happy to be at sea) But, hopelessly addicted to warmth and cleanliness, knowing the filthy Thames, the muggy, tepid London weather at its most unpleasantly moist, I must imagine being utterly miserable on a river barge once the novelty wore off. For all ebook purchases, you will be prompted to create an account or login with your existing HarperCollins username and password.She is passionate about Edward, her drifting husband, who does not want to live with her; but succumbs to a one-night stand with Richard whom she considers, may be the perfect man - he knows how to fold maps - effortlessly. For a while, the closed community of oddball characters seems almost a set-up for an Agatha Christie mystery, and Fitzgerald's first novel, THE GOLDEN CHILD , was indeed a mystery.