The Bain Marie is christened and launched in March, when signs of spring are extremely thin on the ground. As Hugh peers over the steering wheel at the dreary, cold landscape, he is soon…

Hugh wends his way up the river Severn, a route which is simultaneously being taken by millions of baby eels - or elvers - who have miraculously found their way here from their birthplace…

Hugh's waterborne zig-zag across Britain brings him to heart of Yorkshire, along canals formerly bustling with the boom of the textile industry. At the peak of the industrial revolution…