Review – Merlin’s Daily Fishing Calendar 2007

Merlin’s Daily Fishing Calendar 2007

Merlin’s Daily Fishing Calendar 2007

This superbly produced calendar would make an excellent Christmas present for any angler. 365 pages – obviously!

It’s about half an A5 size, hardback cover, boxed, and very, very small and up-market. Inside the covers are 365 photographs by Schwab, and an angling quotation on each page, often very funny. Each page is tear-off as well. So it’s a desk calendar really, and one which, when the cover is bent over as per the instruction, sits neatly on the desk, sloping towards you.

That’s one downside to this work of art. Having presumably torn off a nice picture you then lose it or bin it. And at the end of the year all you have in the hard cover and the box. I know calendars are like that, but it does seem a pity!

Mind you, I notice that the 2006 calendar is still available (same price at Merlin Unwin Books, Palmers house, 7 Corve Street, Ludlow, Shropshire SY8 1DB: 01584 877456). There’s an element of collecting going on here. In short, I don’t plan to tear off my daily photograph. I plan to keep it as a nice book, and I suspect others will want to do this too.

The quotes are quite varied, being philosophical, funny, erudite as well as the photographs too. Some are quite ordinary, and sometimes the picture doesn’t match the quote too well, although this may never have been the intention.

I notice that many of the quotes are from books published by Merlin Unwin. Whilst this is quite reasonable, given the fairly wide range of their angling books, perhaps a wider trawl of quotes would be better in the future. And, at some time, there will need to be a wider trawl of photographs. Both these changes, if they take place, would give the calendar a wider appeal.

The calendar has an attached ribbon so that you can lift it out of its base very nearly. And you can have a bit of fun with the box itself. It is decorated with nice pictures of fish, and if you put the lid on the wrong way round then the pike grows a grayling dorsal fin!

All in all this is a splendid product, of high quality and with an always-interesting content. Any angler would love one on his desk. But mine will remain pristine on the bookshelf.