The Canoe Boys

By Alastair Dunnett,

Book cover of The Canoe Boys: The First Epic Scottish Sea Journey by Kayak

Book description

After being left with no work, Alastair Dunnett and James Adam decided to repay their debts by canoeing from the Clyde to the Hebrides. This text is a collection of the dispatches from their journey they sold to a newspaper in order to make money.

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Canoe Boys as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Faced with publishing debts after their boys' adventure magazine failed, two young men, the author, and James Adams, undertook a kayak expedition in the mid-1930s up the Scottish west coast from the Clyde to Mull, raising funds by selling reports to the press.

They learned much of the remote and deprived Highland economy, which stood the author in good stead later, editing the Daily Record and The Scotsman.

A long trip, including helping to take in the harvest in the autumn, it involved canvas kayaks, kilts, and buying provisions from farms, much more onerous than kit for present-day expeditions.…

From Stuart's list on our canals, rivers, and coast.

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