The attack on the Radleys’ canal boat is a remembered childhood catastrophe in which Will saves Peter from intruders who have already killed their parents. Peter’s recollection gives the brothers’ bond its defining origin: Will acts decisively under threat, while Peter, terrified and unable to move, survives because his younger brother protects and leads him to safety.

Causes and Background

In the 1970s, when Peter was eight, two men broke into the canal barge where he and his family lived. The intruders intended to kill the Radley parents with sharpened hawthorn stakes; Peter and Will never learned who the men were or what grievance had brought them there. The attack therefore begins with a threat whose motive remains unresolved, while its consequences for the family are immediate and permanent.

Peter wakes to his parents’ cries and remains hidden in bed. The men then enter his room carrying a sword. Years later, he can still recall their contrasting appearances, but the central memory is not a clear account of why they came: it is his certainty that he is about to die, followed by the sudden knowledge that Will has entered the confrontation. The scene is narrated through Peter’s recollection, so the attack is shaped by the fear and helplessness he remembers rather than by any explanation from the attackers.

Will's Intervention

Will Radley, then ten years old, interrupts the attack and draws the intruders’ attention away from Peter Radley. He signals for Peter to make a run for the door so they can escape together, but fear leaves Peter unable to move. Will faces the danger alone, and Peter’s memory fixes the brothers’ different responses in that moment: one acts to protect him; the other can only watch.

When the confrontation ends, Will gets Peter out of bed and leads him across the barge, through its narrow galley and up to the riverbank. He tells Peter to wait there. As Peter begins to understand that their parents are dead, he breaks down in tears; Will sets the barge alight and carries them both away by flying.

Aftermath and the Brothers’ Future

About a week later, Will contacted the Orphaned Vampire Agency, which found the brothers a home with Arthur and Alice Castle, mild-mannered suburban abstainers who loved crossword puzzles. Peter and Will vowed they would never become like their guardians, but the vow carried an irony: the brother who had saved Peter and secured their new home was, as Peter later recognized, hardly the best influence. The attack thus survives in Peter’s memory not only as the loss of their parents, but as the beginning of a life shaped by Will’s protection and example.

The Memory's Present-Day Trigger

The recollection begins amid an ordinary family encounter: after a workout, Will Radley offers his brother a bottle of blood, but Peter Radley responds crossly that he is going to shower and leaves. Clara Radley wonders at his irritation, and the narration turns to the childhood attack as one explanation for it. This shift makes the barge episode more than background history: Peter’s present discomfort sits beside a memory in which Will was both his rescuer and the forceful presence who shaped the brothers’ life afterward.