Cyril Ionides

Cyril Ionides is known for A Floating Home, a 1918 book written with J. B. Atkins. In it, he recounts the experiment of making a Thames sailing barge into a family home, blending everyday domestic detail with the pleasures and challenges of life on the water.

The book presents the project as both an adventure and a practical solution: living afloat helped cut household costs while preserving a rich family life. That mix of thrift, curiosity, and affection for the river gives the writing its lasting charm.

Not much firmly verified biographical information is easy to find about Ionides himself, but his book has endured because it offers more than boating lore. It captures an inventive way of living and a warm, firsthand picture of England's waterways in the years around the First World War.