Wonderful waterways inspired story for teens

AS A boy, Edward Christie went on a canal trip along the River Thames and, years later, the journey was one of the inspirations behind his new adventure novel for teenagers.

The second was when he began teaching English to teens.

The action in Stick or Twist, Book 1: The Niko Grant Adventures largely takes place on and along the river. The protagonist, Niko, finds his father being questioned by criminals. He and his friend, Jacinta, take flight in an old canoe and they find themselves being chased upstream towards London.

Edward, 60, who lives in Goring, says: “When I was about 10 years old, my father and my brother and some family friends took a canoeing trip all the way from Oxford to Henley in a flotilla of four canoes.

“I’m not sure you could do this now, but you could camp by the side of the Thames and it was a wonderful adventure.

“We actually came through Goring, little did I know that I would end up living here. My father always ensured that we were camped close to a pub, so he and his fellow father, who was guiding us, we’d always be able to get to the pub at the end of a hard day’s paddling. That has stayed in my mind, what it’s like to be on the water and camp by the side of the river.

“It’s a far less arduous and perilous journey than my teenagers go through, because in the book they actually travel by canoe from this side of Wallingford all the way up to Richmond, stopping at different churchyards, picking up clues.”

Having worked in sales and marketing for publishers including Transworld Publishers, Penguin Random House and Dorling Kindersley, Edward made a drastic career change.

“I spent most of my working life in book publishing but seven years ago, I made a momentous decision to retrain and become an English teacher.

“I taught teenagers, 16-year-olds plus, at Reading College and also adult learners. It was an amazing experience of going back to the world of education and seeing it from the other side, from a teacher’s side.

“I wanted to write an adventure story which was appealing to teenagers.

“I thought that having an outdoors adventure would be the antithesis of what it was like being indoors, on a screen.

“I’m trying to put reading at the forefront of kids’ minds, particularly at this time of year, when we’ve got this long stretch of summer holidays.”

The author set a crucial scene in the book in Goring.

“Niko and Jacinta are being chased along the river by a member of this criminal gang and they arrive at Goring Lock,” he says.

“He is waiting on the two gates, as they are approaching from the Wallingford side and he has worked out where they are going to be.

“He’s got one foot on the left-hand gate and one foot on the right-hand gate and as they come forward, they have to make a decision.

“Do they stick or do they twist? And they twist and they go over the weir, next to the lock. He is perplexed with anger but he doesn’t see that the gates are actually opening...

“The river was such an important waterway back in the day for trade and travel. All of these small towns and villages have their own churches and so the clues that the kids find are all linked to different gravestones in the churchyards and each one leads them on this journey.”

Having lived in Goring for more than 20 years, Edward is married to Annabel, author of The Guilty Gardener, with whom he has two grown-up children, Olivia, a journalist, and Sam, an economist.

“It’s a small village, but it’s quite a hub of activity of the arts. There’s a festival, there’s lots of music nights going on.

“Goring Lock is just absolutely beautiful and it’s just such a wonderful part of the waterway. I met the lock-keeper, Andy Arkell, when I went out filming. I said ‘Would you mind if we took a video?’ and he said, ‘Depends what it’s for’.

“I said it was for books and he said ‘Oh my god, I absolutely love reading’.

“He invited me and my wife to come over on to their side of the lock and film there and then on to the other side, so I could get a good shot of the weir and on the lock gates.”

l Stick or Twist, Book 1: The Niko Grant Adventures, by Edward J Christie, is available from the Bell Bookshop, priced £9.99, and Goring Hardware Store. For more information, visit www.bellbookshop.co.uk