| March 1, 2012 | ||
| 7:15 pm | to | 9:15 pm |
Thursday 1 March at 7.15 pm at Wanstead Library
“Tim and I both understood we had done something really stupid. We had under-estimated the danger involved in going out to sea. We had no radio, compass, life raft or flares. In other words, we were a couple of idiots.”
This is the story of Shane and Timothy Spall and their Dutch barge The Princess Matilda. After a summer on the Thames they head out to sea with only a road atlas and a vast amount of ignorance – and it is absolutely terrifying!
Shane Spall’s father named her after a character in a Western, played by Alan Ladd. As a teenager she worked in Birmingham and on her day off would sit in New Street station and wonder where everyone was going. Timothy Spall arrived at New Street in 1981. He fell passionately in love with her when he had accidentally touched her arm one night. He is now considered to be a national treasure, and is a bit of a show off. Shane doesn’t mind; she keeps his feet on the ground.
The Voyages of the Princess Matilda is published by Ebury Press in paperback at £11.99.
Tickets £5 from Newham Bookshop or Wanstead Library, telephone: 020 8708 7400.














