Andrew Marr interview with Emma Smith

[rrt2]

For those with catchup TV.

The Andrew Marr show today ( 9th Nov ) has an interview with Emma Smith ( one of the wartime boaters ).

Start time is 52min and 40 sec.

[bottle]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b04ph1c6/the-andrew-marr-show-09112014

[Rob-M]

Managed to turn over and catch part of the interview, Emma came across as a very articulate lady with a wonderful memory.

[JamesWoolcock]

I love her book 'Maiden's Tale'. There are some truly memorable lines throughout it.

But those I will remember most of all is not in the book, but in an article not that long ago, in the Saturday Telegraph magazine; 'Emma Smith remembers working on the canals in the Second World War, 1944' where she concludes: " I did it for two years. I felt a bit guilty to begin with because I enjoyed it so much. My sister and everyone I knew were in the forces and getting killed and there I was having a lovely time."

 

James

[BuckbyLocks]

Not nitpicking James, but Emma gets very annoyed with folk who misplace the apostrophe. Her book is "Maidens' Trip". The second part of her autobiography entitled, "As Green as Grass", published by Bloomsbury in 2013, covers her time on the Cut and is well worth a read.

[Peter Reed]

Not nitpicking James, but Emma gets very annoyed with folk who misplace the apostrophe. Her book is "Maidens' Trip". The second part of her autobiography entitled, "As Green as Grass", published by Bloomsbury in 2013, covers her time on the Cut and is well worth a read.

Yes, you are nitpicking.

[alan_fincher]

Yes, you are nitpicking.

 

I thought he might get picked up on substituting "Tale" for "Trip" - I hadn't noticed the apostrophe!

[Ray T]

Not wishing to demean the IW women in any way shape or form, but I suppose they got a lot of attention from the WWII propaganda department.

 

A different perspective:

 

David Blagrove:

" The women trainees brought in from 1941 have been much written about but although it was a gallant one, their contribution was not greatly significant by comparison with the efforts of the indigenous boat people, whose story has largely been untold".

 

On one of my recent visits to Mike Humphries (ex Barlow's and BW captain) on broaching the topic of the IW trainees.

" We didn't sit on our a***s during the war and do sod all, anyone would think they did it all".

[JamesWoolcock]

Not nitpicking James, but Emma gets very annoyed with folk who misplace the apostrophe. Her book is "Maidens' Trip". The second part of her autobiography entitled, "As Green as Grass", published by Bloomsbury in 2013, covers her time on the Cut and is well worth a read.

Yes you are.

 

Yawn

Edited November 10, 2014 by JamesWoolcock

[JamesWoolcock]

 

I thought he might get picked up on substituting "Tale" for "Trip" - I hadn't noticed the apostrophe!

Ha ha and well spotted Alan.

[archie57]

If it took nearly three weeks to do a round trip to Birmingham, such as the Pathe news clip refers to, one must wonder what the likes of Jack James must have thought of the trainees. Mr. James worked on the Guinness job all through the war, loading at Park Royal for Birmingham every seven days.

[alan_fincher]

If it took nearly three weeks to do a round trip to Birmingham, such as the Pathe news clip refers to, one must wonder what the likes of Jack James must have thought of the trainees. Mr. James worked on the Guinness job all through the war, loading at Park Royal for Birmingham every seven days.

That does seem a bit odd, doesn't it?

 

From what has been written by various authors I don't think it unfair to suggest that quite a few of the women crews probably couldn't complete a trip as fast as the best born and bred boaters. Clearly many didn't do it for long, and simply would neither have built up enough experience or stamina.

 

But it does seem to be fairly widely accepted that this trio became a very competent crew that could give many of those with far more experience a good run for their money, and earned huge respect as a result.

 

The "nearly three weeks" claim sounds wrong doesn't it, and maybe it is just something that wasn't correctly grasped by those making the film?

[Derek R.]

Don't take a newsreel quote as being accurate, if the details are not to hand they'd just make something up - like the "few toots on the whistle" line.

[archie57]

Perhaps reference to the published trainee diaries in the HNBC magazine will share more light on this