A while ago I was googling something boaty and up came Amazon Japan with a book by canal journalist Steve Haywood. I dashed off an email to Steve asking him if he sold well in Japan. Here is his response:

Hi Phil

Many thanks for the note on One Man and a Narrowboat; I wasn't aware that it was on the Amazon Japan site but it doesn't surprise me. It features a scene with a group of Japanese tourists who I came across - or to be more accurate, they came across me, clambering all over Justice - in Atherstone some years ago. I couldn't understand then why there was so much interest. I mean! Atherstone? Lovely lock flight, but it's hardly Buckingham Palace, is it?

I wondered if they'd just found themselves witrh a spare hour before flying off from East Midlands airport. Since then though I can't help but notice that I'm selling a significant amount of books in Japan; and I've noticed recently - as anyone travelling the canals must have noticed - that there are increasing numbers of Japanese families renting boats. There are, of course, also a lot of New Zealanders doing the same thing, and even more Austrailians where I also sell well..

These figure in my new book which a must for anyone interested in waterways, and a double must for anyone who likes cats too. It's called Too Narrow to Swing a Cat - Going Nowhere in Particular on the English Waterways. Perhaps you could plug this? Maybe you could just post this reply?

Steve