Set amongst the mysterious beauty of the English canals, 'Grey Lady' is a gripping generational saga that stretches from Victorian England to the Second World War.
When Ben Jacardi is caught stealing coal by boatbuilder Josiah Armstrong, it is the first stroke of fortune in his short and unhappy life. His father had died before he was born, and his mother is vicious and cruel. When Ben can stand the beatings no longer he runs away, and in Josiah and his wife, Kathy, finds someone to take care of him.
Then Josiah's real son Patrick returns home to rob his father. Unable to pay Ben as his apprentice, Josiah offers him payment in kind: the narrow boat Grey Lady. Ben accepts, and with his wife Faith, begins a career on the English canals. It is a life laced with both hardship and hope, and it brings a son whose fate seems to be to follow the path first trodden by his dead grandfather . . .
