This story is fiction. I had carried out considerable research into my family history and one day my brother suggested I used it as the basis for a novel. This appealed to me and the seed grew. I have used the names of my ancestors but have given them personalities and characters which they may or may not have had in order to create a novel. It is not intended as a historical account of life on the Leeds Liverpool canal in the nineteenth century but I have tried to be as accurate as possible. In writing this novel much of the early story is a figment of my imagination but later a large percentage of the story is true.