Maidens' Trip

Maidens' Trip is a 1948 autobiography by Emma Smith based on her experiences as a volunteer boatwoman on Britain's Grand Union Canal during the Second World War.[1] It won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize for 1949.[2]

Maidens' Trip
First edition
AuthorEmma Smith
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
PublisherPutnam & Company
Publication date
11 Aug 1948
Followed byA Far Cry 

Background

In 1943 Emma Smith (then known as Elspeth Hallsmith) joined the Grand Union Canal Carrying Company under their wartime scheme of employing women to replace men who had gone off to fight. Freed from a middle-class background, Emma and her new workmates joined the boating fraternity and learned how to handle a pair of 72 ft long canal boats, carrying cargoes of steel and coal north from London to Birmingham and Coventry.

Radio and television

In 1968 Smith's book was serialised on the BBC's Woman's Hour and read by Miriam Margolyes.[3] A decade later it was adapted as a 3-part television serial, produced by the BBC (Birmingham) and broadcast in 1977.[4] It starred Tina Heath, Liz Bagley, Tricia George and John Salthouse and was directed by Moira Armstrong.

References
  1. The Tatler, 24 November 1948.
  2. The Scotsman, 16 March 1950.
  3. Radio Times, 26 August 1968.
  4. The Stage, 16 June 1977.


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