Canals seem such peaceful places to us now, but it was clear from Jasper Winn's highly entertaining talk in Wells today (October 22), that in their heyday they were all about one thing – money.

Yes, as much as we see these feats of engineering as romantic getaways, or someone to go for peace and quiet, they were mainly made to make lots of money for industrialists, and they experienced a boom similar to the dot com boom from a decade or two ago.

Jasper was talking in Cedars Hall at the Wells Festival of Literature to promote his new book Water Ways, which chronicles his travels along the canals of England and Wales.

He actually spoke very little about the book, more about the history of canals and how they lead the way in the Industrial Revolution, but then contributed to their own downfall by helping to ship the raw materials for the building of the railways.

Jasper has been the writer in residence, or motion as he put it, for the Canal and River Trust and it was they who commissioned the book, which is more a travel guide than a potted history.

His talk went more deeply into the history, though, and it was fascinating stuff – I would not count myself as a canal buff, but it was captivating hearing about the technical challenges the early canal builders and their navvies faced.

It was clearly a very hard life for those working on the canals, and the romantic notion of pleasant gypsy families pottering along the Kennet and Avon, without a care in the world could not be further from the truth.

In fact, Jasper pulled out his guitar at one point to perform one of the few canal-based folk songs ever written, about a man called Thomas Booth and his family.

You are unlikely to ever hear a more tragic and heartbreaking song, and it just summed up what life was like.

However, the rest of the talk was incredibly light-hearted and Jasper clearly was passionate about the subject, and enjoying a slow way of life.

His focus was on the human side of canal life, and the talk was all the better for it – yet another success for this year's Wells Festival of Literature.