Jess Carter and the Oil Boat

In Geoffrey Lewis' first story intended for younger readers, Jess Carter & the Oil Boat takes us from the industrial gloom of the Black Country to the wide expanse of the Manchester Ship Canal, via the pastoral landscapes of Shropshire and Cheshire, on board a horse-drawn tanker boat of Thomas Clayton (Oldbury) Ltd. The family on board, Annie Kain, a widowed boatwoman and her three children, pick up a mysterious young stranger whom they find sleeping rough under a railway bridge in Tipton. Taking sympathy on his plight, she takes him along for the trip, despite the disagreement of her fifteen-year-old son, who is the nominal captain of the boat. The stranger, a thirteen-year-old boy of mixed race descent, does his best to fit with the work and life on the boat, but the older boy's resentment at his presence quickly causes tension to flare between them...

Jess Carter & the Oil Boat tells the story of that one trip to load oil at the Stanlow refinery, on the ship canal, and back to Birmingham, in the spring of 1939. Adventures along the way as Jesse learns about a world he has only glimpsed before add spice to this fascinating tale of life ‘on the cut’ in the months immediately before the Second World War. And the half-caste boy’s own background, the reasons behind his lone life on the streets, are slowly revealed as the trip progresses...

Exciting, melancholy and uplifting in turns, Jess Carter & the Oil Boat is sure to appeal to young and old alike. Children will thrill to the tension and mystery, while older readers will appreciate a captivating story set against a true-to-life world of days gone by. And we anticipate that Mr Lewis’ enthusiastic band of adult readers will be just as keen as their children to add this book to their collections! Further Jess Carter stories follow, beginning with Jess Carter & the Bolinder.