FThat Rome her gently fluctuating “writing boat” – a converted narrow boat that is bound to Taggs Island in the Thames at her floating house – the writer Georgina Moore observes how the river comes to life for the summer season.
“At this time of year it becomes a party city again,” says Moore, 52, and notes Speedboats, Novelry Blaseries and People who sunbathe on the decks of their boats. “I can hear dance music from the nearby cricket club, the helm from the rowing club and people from island to island.
During this highly social summer on Taggs “I love to be Early to catch the river when it is private and only ours when the sun rises above the Weir, ”adds Moore.
A look at Taggs Island
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In the past century, this six hectare information near the Hampton Court Palace attempts from the former owners of the island in an entertainment resort for High Society with floating palaces, ball rooms and local orchestras. There were even plans in the 1920s to make a mini-palm beach with imported palms and sand to imitate its namesake Florids.
• “I wrote a Gothic novel that is inspired by my island house on the Thames.”
For Moore – a book publicist who published her debut novel, The garnett girlsAt the Isle of Wight in 2023 – the island offers a fertile territory for fiction. Your second novel, River of the starswhich will be published on July 3, is on Walnut Tree Island – the old name for Taggs.
In history, the protagonist “Aging Party Girl” is with the new owner of the island who wants to sell the country to real estate developers. “It is about keeping the legacy of the islands like this and at the same time to continue to the community,” she says.
Some early readers of their new novel, pre-publication, have commented on that they want such a place. Now, 15 miles from Central -London, with a population of around 100 years that spans all generations and all live on houseboats that are stuck around the area of the island and on the inner lagoon.
Moore's big home with four bedrooms, the view where she lives with her husband James (54), a psychotherapist, and her children, Sonny (14) and Daisy (13), has a garden on the island that is big enough for James' home office and a mini-astro soccer field for the children.
Moore with their children Sonny and Daisy
And then there is her writing boat called Betsy, who sits in a remote place with a view of the Weir. The 23 foot, which cost a 10 -inch wide boat, which cost the construction of £ 17,000, came as a tasty shell, on which bogs turned further £ 10,000 into her creative corner.
“I have added windows and doors, a nice takeover, wood paneling and cupboards, LED lighting and a small electric stove that looks like a fire,” she says. “When I call for zoom in summer, people are fascinated when paddleboarders drift past the windows, and at night it is so peaceful when fireflies dance over the river and you only hear the water.”
The interior of Moores writing boat, Betsy
Winter have their own charm. “Our house is connected to steel pontoons, so I hear the creak and moan when the flood shifts, and the wind carries every noise,” says Moore, who moved to the island 16 years ago to join James. “He was here for so long that he is part of the river sludge.”
Like all homeowners on the island, they were money buyers because no mortgages are available in these floating houses. Other residents own or rent their houseboats under a variety of makers.
At the moment there is a houseboat with two bedrooms with a view of the lagoon with a 999-year lease and without bond fees for £ 725,000; And a houseboat with a bedroom with a 20-year renewable license for 429,950 GBP, both over the water side.
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Sonny and Daisy are now at this age, says Moore: “Where they ask why they cannot live in a normal house like everyone else. But then their friends come in summer and they all go off kayaking or paddleboarding and they recognize the advantages.”
In addition, her children have never known a life in which their home of something else is accessible than a gear plank. The family's holiday home is also a houseboat and old theme that they have converted into a luxurious house with four bedrooms called Sturdy in Bembridge Harbor on the Isle of Wight.
It was there when a family from a large house with a view of the beach emerged that Moore, a lifelong Londoner, found inspiration for inspiration The garnett girls. “I was fascinated by how it would grow up in a community on water like Bembridge, where everyone knows their name and history.”
Visitors to Karsino, a hotel on Taggs Island, 1913
Topical press agency/Hulton Archive/Getty pictures
It is a similarly close -meshed community on Taggs, she says. “Just going to the next bus stop can take time because they stop to chat with 20 people.”
Small-Island Living also has great advantages. “Part of the community is inevitably age and is associated with challenges if you live on the water. However, if you are sick or need help, the community supports massive. Life here is a great way to combat loneliness.” Moore thinks how easy it will be to jump up and down when she is older.
But at the moment there is the next novel that can be taken into account – of course only this time in the Hamptons on an island. Undoubtedly your gentle and falling window over the water will help to fuel your imagination again. “Lives in Iceland everywhere,” she says, “deals with the close -meshed community and the lifespan living so close to nature.”