I have had the good fortune over the last few weeks of having several books to review by varying authors with varying target species and, of course, with very varied styles of writing. This is the last of the batch but that shouldn’t be seen as any weakness on the book’s part, far from it in fact.
In many ways I Iooked forward to reading this book more than the others because, unlike all but Mick Brown’s book, this one has large parts that relate directly to places and times that I have actually been fishing myself.
I should also say that I have come to know the author, Chris Turnbull, over the past five years or so from my time fishing the wonderful Bawburgh Complex in Norfolk, indeed it was Chris who pointed me in the direction of my first ever double figure tench after many seasons of trying. So it was with great relish that I sat back, poured myself a large one and immersed myself in his new book.
The first thing that grabbed me about the book was the production quality and the look of it. Chris, as many of you will know, is a much respected and admired angling artist and the book is liberally doused with paintings from his own brush, including the front cover barbel picture, which is quite stunning. The book is finished nicely as well as we have come to expect from a Harper Fine Angling production.
Now many, I know, will say that this is really irrelevant if the writing is lousy and that is of course very true, but nice little finishing touches like using good quality paper and illustrating the edging definitely help to elevate a book above the ordinary. The whole reading experience of this sort of production is something you could never hope to get from such devices as an e-reader or Kindle; add to this the numerous colour photographs and you have a book that is a feast for the eyes.
Thankfully after commenting upon the look of the book it’s good to be able to say that the written word is of equal quality! Chris writes in a straightforward, easy to read style that I know finds favour with many and has done throughout a long career of contributing to many angling publications and to his two tench books.
In this book Chris covers a wide variety of species from pike to crucian carp recounting tales from his exploits with all of them. There is so much more depth to it though than many angling books as not only has Chris caught the fish but he has also, at various times, been instrumental in putting right the wrongs done by others; perhaps best illustrated by the Sayers Meadow Project on the River Wensum that produced some of the finest fishing in the country and turned a dying river into a thing of beauty as it stands today.
In both that project and in this book Chris has left a legacy that will be enjoyed by many anglers for years to come and I for one applaud him for both and recommend anyone wanting a great all round read to put this one on their ‘must have’ list for Santa.
Copies are available from Harper Fine Angling Books and are priced at £30 plus postage.
