Book description
I'd throw in my job, do something so different, so bold, that it would
change our lives; throw the cards in the air and the heck where they
landed. Craving adventure, Bruce Ansley goes in search of happiness on
the French canals. He and his wife Sally buy a canal boat, the River
Queen, in Holland and sail it through Belgium to France. They travel
through old battlefields, the great vineyards and wineries of Burgundy
and find the ideal way to live in Paris: on a boat. La Belle France
seems flawlessly to live up to Bruce's expectations. The journey takes
the couple through quaint villages and picturesque countryside; it
introduces them to colourful people, excellent food and lots and lots of
wine. Bruce and Sally find themselves part of a floating community whose
people range from hilarious to eccentric to astonishing. Yet aboard the
River Queen another drama plays out. Fault lines appear in the perfect
life, threatening the ideal escape with an unhappy ending. Throwing the
cards in the air is one thing, but knowing how they will land is
another. With humour and a poignantly candid touch, Ansley documents a
journey within a journey:the internal shifts of a marriage that just
might not make it home. This memoir takes us vividly and unforgettably
to France: but it takes us further than that - deep into the winding,
secret interior of the heart. In the last quarter-century or so,
award-winning journalist Bruce Ansley has written for newspapers,
including the London Sun, radio, and television shows such as A Week of
It and McPhail and Gadsby. He was a staff writer for the NZ Listener
magazine until the end of 2006, when he left to become both canal
voyager in France and full-time writer of books. His last book was
Stoned on Duty (Hodder Moa Beckett), a tale of intrigue involving the
police war on drugs. Despite the events described in A Long Slow Affair
of the Heart, Bruce is still married, with twin sons, and lives in
Christchurch.
