The First Lock

Text 1: Serenity, by Bernard Quaile

An original novel extract.

Dad had read the hire company’s booklet twice on the drive up, and he told us so at the first lock. ‘It’s perfectly simple,’ he said, holding the windlass like a conductor’s baton. ‘Water in, boat up. Water out, boat down. A child could do it.’

Mum was steering. Mum had never steered anything larger than a supermarket trolley. The boat, which was called Serenity and was sixty feet long, entered the lock at an angle, kissed the left wall with a noise like a dropped piano, rebounded, and wedged itself diagonally across the chamber with its nose in a clump of nettles. A man walking a spaniel on the towpath stopped to watch. Then another man stopped. Then a whole family of cyclists dismounted, as if for a show.

‘Reverse!’ Dad shouted. ‘No, the other reverse!’ He wound the paddle furiously, and the water came roaring in, and Serenity began to rise, still diagonal, still wedged, with a long groaning sound like a cow in distress. My little brother was taking photographs. Somewhere behind us, the spaniel barked once, politely, as though offering advice.

How does Bernard Quaile use language and structure to show the comedy of the family’s first attempt to go through a lock?

You should use relevant subject terminology to support your answer.