Derek Gibson
Well-known member
Anything by H.T.Sheringham, the angling writers writer.
The very best in coarse writing?
- Thread starter jef bertels
- Start date
dezza
Well-known member
flightliner
Well-known member
You must loan me one of his books sometime D-- you never know, I may just be given reason to change my mind.
Derek Gibson
Well-known member
dezza
Well-known member
Have to disagree with you on the Venables bit.
My opinion of Venables is that he was one of the worst angling writers of the lot. He was a miserable old sourpuss and a plaigarist of the first order.
And that truly awful flowery "prose"
"UUUuuurrrggghhh!!
For me, the two greatest descriptive and evocative angling writers were HT Sheringham and Denys Watkins-Pitchford. Both Streets ahead of Venables, who was a cruel *******, dressing poor little Peter in shorts on a freezing cold day!
---------- Post added at 03:35 ---------- Previous post was at 03:30 ----------
And the greatest angling writer of all time:
Only one man there, but I'll let you guess.
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flightliner
Well-known member
Ron- I know you hold venables with some disdain and I agree entirely with some of what you say but I asked for the writer that "got your angling juices" going and as a small boy living in a large industrial but angling mad city where you saw thousands of anglers alighting from "sharabancs"and trains every saturday and sunday evenings ,It was almost inevitable that I would follow in the same footsteps as them. (along with just about every male member of my family) Money was scarce and quality books by anglers were not even on the horizon so when "Crabtree" came along I was able for the first time to enter that magical world that we all love. ) Venables transported me to a world outside that where I lived and over the years the pages of that old book were worn,torn,lost.I owe him some credit for enthusing me with that fine illness for which we all know there is no cure.
Cruel to Peter making him wear short trews! Boys had to know their place back then(lol)
Best angling writer of all time? do tell. Was/is it a carp angler??
ED (The ORIGINAL and REAL one)
Well-known member
cg74
Well-known member
And the greatest angling writer of all time:
Only one man there, but I'll let you guess.
Paul Boote....... errrm, Danny Fairbrass or perhaps Martin Bowler ? ?
No I've got it; J A Hartley ?!!
For me what best summed it all up nicely was Bob Roberts remark, basically along the lines of:
The best anglers are always the best writers and the best writers are seldom the best anglers.
So in essence unless you're a complete novice (or a carp angler), sadly there ain't much worth reading these days.
I do quite enjoy reading Tony Miles articles but won't buy a magazine for one article that's of interest and carp.com supplies ample reading material to keep my carp reading urges fed.
---------- Post added at 05:46 ---------- Previous post was at 05:25 ----------
Ron, a few more potential cadidates for your favourite angling writer:
Julian Cundiff, Rob Maylin, Rod Hutchinson, Matt Hayes, John Wilson, Ali Hamidi, Kevin Maddocks, Mike Redfern, Ian Chillcott or perhaps its your good self, the one and only Ron (Trent fishing god) Clay ? ?
Mark Wintle
Well-known member
John Gierach, Clive Gammon, Colin Willock, Fred J Taylor, Howard Marshall, Chris Yates,Tom Fort ?????????? I was inspired as a 12 year old by Crabtree as well.
Plenty of good writing out there but whether you'll find what you want in weekly/monthly papers/magazines is another matter.
Plenty of good writing out there but whether you'll find what you want in weekly/monthly papers/magazines is another matter.
dezza
Well-known member
Stir! Stir! Stir!
By crikey this turd really pongs!
By crikey this turd really pongs!
flightliner
Well-known member
A bit like saTURDay-- always the worst day to go fishing.often ***p!
Cliff Hatton
Well-known member
Have to disagree with you on the Venables bit.
My opinion of Venables is that he was one of the worst angling writers of the lot. He was a miserable old sourpuss and a plaigarist of the first order.
And that truly awful flowery "prose"
"UUUuuurrrggghhh!!
For me, the two greatest descriptive and evocative angling writers were HT Sheringham and Denys Watkyns-Pitchford. Both Streets ahead of Venables, who was a cruel *******, dressing poor little Peter in shorts on a freezing cold day!
---------- Post added at 03:35 ---------- Previous post was at 03:30 ----------
And the greatest angling writer of all time:
Only one man there, but I'll let you guess.
Ronald! Go and stand in the corner!
dezza
Well-known member
Never!!!
You ask me why I take this stance towards Venables?
I turn to page 173 of Barrie Rickards "Biography of an Angling Legend".
"In his autobiography "A Stream of Life" (p174), Venables describes RW as "combatively logical rather than passionate, brilliant, rather than inspired".
And the following too:
"I found him an oddity I could not for a time identify": "He was not intelligent, but was almost boundlessly innovative."
It is only when you begin to examine what Venables is trying to say here that you realise what a complete ****-head he was.
Way back ca 1964, I went to London to an Angling Show. It was at Olympia I think. At the time I was with Tag Barnes who knew quite a number of the main angling personalities then. Tag introduced me to RW and we chatted for some considerable time. Then at a later stage I tried to have a word with Venables.
I forget the exact words he used but it was something like: "Oh go away, can't you see I've had enough of you lot".
What a total different personality was Walker. his attitude was: "Come and have a word with you're old mate ****"; or, "call me ****".
As Fred J. Taylor once said, "what a thoroughly nice man".
Venables?
I never read any more of his writings since the revelations I noted in his autobiography; and I never will
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Neil Maidment
Moderator
"Mr Crabtree" was inspired writing of its time and was certainly an inspiration to me.
Red Letter Days compiled by Peter Rogers and illustrated by John Searl is a cracking read. It was written and published in honour of Bernard Venables.
The fact that Bernard Venables had fished in and around my local area, particularly the Somerley Estate, just added to the hours of reading and re-reading.
John Searl recalls the launch of the book and celebration of Venables:
"The invitations were sent out, and if everyone who had been invited turned up it would be the largest gathering of angling's greats ever assembled in one place. And so it proved to be...."
Red Letter Days compiled by Peter Rogers and illustrated by John Searl is a cracking read. It was written and published in honour of Bernard Venables.
The fact that Bernard Venables had fished in and around my local area, particularly the Somerley Estate, just added to the hours of reading and re-reading.
John Searl recalls the launch of the book and celebration of Venables:
"The invitations were sent out, and if everyone who had been invited turned up it would be the largest gathering of angling's greats ever assembled in one place. And so it proved to be...."
geoffmaynard
Content Editor
The Rod in India by Henry Sullivan Thomas is the most evocative angling book I've ever read. Tales of mahseer angling in a bygone age, exciting, fascinating and enchanting.
Oh, and I had a similar experience with BV Ron. Twice! It didn't detract from the magic of Mr Crabtree though
Oh, and I had a similar experience with BV Ron. Twice! It didn't detract from the magic of Mr Crabtree though
Mark Wintle
Well-known member
£29-95 (99?) plus £6 p&p if not at the book launch, Bluenose.
The first book 'CHUB' didn't sell well at first and the publisher sold them off at £2-50. I did hear someone bought about 200, a lovely big profit. If any are still about they are now demanding £120-£140, I saw one advertised on a game fishing site at over £400.
There were some expensive lessons learned with the first book, this time the Group is doing the editing, proof reading, publishing and will retain ownership of all unsold stock.
There will be a link on the CSG web site to download the pdf Order Form but I have been asked not to accept orders from outside of the Group before 18th September, I could however e-mail the form to any FM members before then.
Paul W, The dust jacket artwork is by John Searl, angling artist and Group member. Everything apart from the actual print job (that's by John Mason) has been done within the Group.
The leather-bound was done in the finest skin of 16 year old Cornish virgins...a very short print run and all sold
"Personally I far prefer Waterlog for better writing and a wider variety of articles".
So you're the other one then Peter
I had the pleasure of attending this event yesterday. It was great to meet some old friends and apologies if I didn't introduce myself to any of the FM regulars present, not always easy to recognise people in the flesh! The book is a treasure trove of chub lore and it'll be a while before I finish it. I'd say get in quick if you want a copy as I understand that more than half of the copies have already gone.
Sean Meeghan
Well-known member
If you're talking about what inspired me as a kid it was two books - Mr Crabtree (although St Helens and the surrounding area didn't provide swims which looked much like those fished by Mr C and Peter) and (I can't explain this one) Grayling, by Reg Righyni.
If you read one modern book it must be The Longest Silence by Thomas McGuane. Gierach is OK in small doses, but reading all of his books is a bit of overkill.
Walker is a decent technical writer, as any properly educated engineer should be, but not someone I'd read and re-read. sorry Ron!
---------- Post added at 21:23 ---------- Previous post was at 21:22 ----------
Oh, and St Jelens library did have a copy of The Fighting Barbel and a couple of other books by Peter Wheat - great books, but not really relevant to me at the time!
If you read one modern book it must be The Longest Silence by Thomas McGuane. Gierach is OK in small doses, but reading all of his books is a bit of overkill.
Walker is a decent technical writer, as any properly educated engineer should be, but not someone I'd read and re-read.
sorry Ron!---------- Post added at 21:23 ---------- Previous post was at 21:22 ----------
Oh, and St Jelens library did have a copy of The Fighting Barbel and a couple of other books by Peter Wheat - great books, but not really relevant to me at the time!