Steve sets out to escape the routine of his life in London for a voyage of discovery along England's inland waterways. Travelling by traditional narrowboat he heads north from Banbury in deepest Oxfordshire, through the former industrial wastelands of the now vibrantly modern Manchester, to the trendy affluence of Hebden Bridge at the centre of West Yorkshire's ciabatta belt. With irrepressible humour he describes the history of the canals, the characters he encounters along the way, and the magic that makes England's waterways so appealing.