The River Ferry

Text 1: Thirty-One Years, by Delphine Ashworth

An original novel extract.

The river had risen a foot in the night and turned the colour of strong tea. It came down past the jetty in heavy ropes and coils, carrying whole branches, a dead sheep, a plastic chair upside down. Two hikers stood on the planks, staring at it. ‘You’re not going across in that?’ one of them said.

Agnes Dyer did not answer. She was untying the painter with her old, blunt fingers, the way she had untied it every morning for thirty-one years. She stepped down into the boat and it barely rocked. ‘Sit in the middle,’ she said. ‘Hold the sides. Don’t stand.’

She did not row straight across. She pulled upstream first, close in under the bank where the water ran slack, then turned the bow into the current at a slant and let the river push her over, a little at a time, like a hand easing a drawer shut. Her oars dipped and rose without a splash. Her face did not change. Halfway over, a log as thick as a man swung towards them, and the hikers gasped; Agnes feathered one oar, and the boat slid aside, and the log went past so close they could have touched its bark. On the far bank she shipped the oars and held out her hand for the fare.

How does Delphine Ashworth use language and structure to show Agnes Dyer’s skill and calm?

You should use relevant subject terminology to support your answer.