The Otters this Summer

Our tame otters, who romp through the pages of Funnily Enough, are still going strong. The have a huge number of fans including Her Majesty the Queen, HRH The Prince of Wales, Sir David Attenbrough, Joanna Lumley, David Bellamy, Angela Ripon, Michael Meacher MP and Michael Fish the weather man.

In 2013 they appeared on ‘Wild’ on CBBC, 

at the CLA Game Fair and Royal Welsh Show and in the Sunday Telegraph. 

They also enjoyed meeting people in Devon at the Honiton Show,

at Frampton-on-Severn in Gloucestershire and The Romsey Show in Hampshire. 

~ click here for their diary ~

Filming our tame otters

Filming with otters is never easy. You can imagine what happened 0.05 seconds after this photograph was taken. On the other hand, our tame otters will spend ages drying off after a swim.

The easiest way to photograph our Asian short-clawed otters is when they are elevated in some way. Rudi is good at climbing but will descend with caution as he is not built to jump.

Often the script calls for an otter to be swimming underwater. Whilst this is possible it takes a long time to capture a sequence. A whole day was needed to take one underwater photograph for the scene in The Waterbabies. Here the little boy playing Tom is letting a young otter smell his hand. 

Much depends on the confidence of the actors appearing with the animals. Whilst Belinda is completely relaxed in my father's arms, she remains a wild creature and it takes her time to get used to strangers.

This little girl who appeared in the drama series 'The Secret of Eel Island' was wonderful with the otters.

Many of the scenes were set on a houseboat which worked well as they could not jump off it and there was no chance for them to off run into the woods.

Oddly our otters don't like swimming in our lake. I think Adam Henson must have lost one here.

No, he was after a pig.

At least you can carry an otter about and hold one in your arms.

To read more ~ click here

Building boats ~ and renovating classic craft

Alastair Fothergill researching a documentary on the Thames

Men who have enjoyed reading Funnily Enough tell me that they are interested to know more about my father's boats. When I was seventeen, I helped Dad to renovate a 1901 Steamboat called Daffodil, which we kept on the Thames for many years.

What appealed to them was Dad's enthusiasm for classic design and his energy for renovating vintage hulls.

In 1991 Dad was engrossed in completing a Humber Yawl, which he had designed and built himself. We ended up taking her to the Lake District where he sailed down Windermere despite the fact that there seemed to be no wind. I preferred rowing her.

Cassy was a beautiful vessel. You could also use her with an outboard, but she proved very much a one-man concern. Almost as soon as she had been finished my father was after a new project. He bought the hull of a 1912 river launch that came down on a trailer from Scotland and immediately began doing her up.

The Ottor, as Dad christened her, replaced Dad's rather fragile 1901 steamboat - a lovely vessel that as far as my mother was concerned ran silently and had a fire on board. At first she was not keen on the idea of a noisy diesel engine but Ottor was a comfortable launch and Mum was happy once out on the Thames where there is lots to do and see.

For more about Martin Neville and his books and boats
please click on http://martinneville.wordpress.com/about/

If you wish to use any photographs please contact sophie@sophieneville.co.uk

Daffodil our steamboat kept on the River Thames

One of the characters in 'Funnily Enough' is Daffodil, my father's steamboat. She was built in 1901, a 24' river launch with a cabin long enough to sleep in and an unusual deck that extened out over her stern. For as long as I can remember her hull rested under a sycamore tree in our garden, draped in tarpulines, looking out over our lake. She had to wait for my father to find an engine that would suit her and the time to put her right.

Suddenly things started to move. Daffodil was decked with gaboon and teak, a boiler was found and clad, a funnel added. She was even fitted with a steam kettle. I helped a sweet old plumber with the pipe-work that connected boiler to engine, lagging pipes that we knew would become hot. The was to make her accelerate was simply to open up the steam valve - turn on the tap. She did have a gear that would throw her into reverse.

Once everthing was fitted, painted and shining we towed her down to Bossom's Boatyard at Port Meadow on the Thames. She was launched - and promptly started leaking. I leaped abraad to take out all our carefully stowed gear and provisions tucked into the cabin lockers. The boat yard calmly hoisted a cradle around her so she wouldn't sink. Her old timbers had been out of the water for too long. She was left for her timbers to swell but my father ended up having to have her clad in a fibreglass coat.

We had many happy weekends on Daffodil. It was wonderful to have aboat with a fire on board. It took about 45 minutes to get up steam but this never seemed a chore. On the whole we burnt steam coal which didn't produce much smoke. We did use wood but this menat that sparks could fly out of the chimney. They burrnt small holes in the canvas canopy, which was made to cover the cockpit. One got me in the eye when I was stading on the roof in a lock. It left me very sore for a day or too but I recovered.

Daffodil's engine made a wonderful sound and the smell of the high grade steam oil somehow mixed well with summer days on the Thames. With steam up she could go at quite a pace but was so well designed she never left any wake. One always had to take care no to run low on steam incase extra power was needed at a weir. She was terribly fragile. We had to take great care when going through locks and did not dare take her off the river, but people came to her and she is lovingly remembered.

If you would like to read more about my father, Martin Neville and his boats, please go to

 http://martinneville.wordpress.com/about/