Jeremy Paxman - Fish, Fishing and the Meaning of Life

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jeremy Paxman was born in Yorkshire and educated at Cambridge. He is an award-winning journalist who spent ten years reporting from overseas, notably for Panorama. He is the author of four books, all of which are published by Penguin: Friends in High Places: Who Runs Britain?, Fish, Fishing and the Meaning of Life, The English and The Political Animal. He is currently the presenter of Newsnight and University Challenge.

PENGUIN BOOKS

FISH, FISHING AND THE MEANING OF LIFE

Top anthology, and great for friends who enjoy dipping into books is Fish, Fishing and the Meaning of Life Ive never fished in my life but this quirky compendium bubbling with snippets about trout-tickling, maggot-growing, eel-switching, and using live frogs as bait, made me want to rush out and buy a fishing rod Val Hennessy in the Daily Mail

Any book about fishing must be judged by how well it reproduces that journey into magic Fish, Fishing and the Meaning of Life does this extra ordinarily well Andrew Brown in the Independent

A well-researched guide book which will lead the reflective angler past the deeper drifts of angling verbiage and on to more rewarding waters Paxman introduces each chapter with an essay, which are excellent, larded with his quick humour and sharp observation James Freeman in the Herald

A splendid anthology Louise Guinness in the Evening Standard

My anthologists gold star is awarded [to Fish, Fishing and the Meaning of Life] Jeremy Paxman has revelled in his task of qualifying and categorizing the art of piscatorial, fossicking about among double-barrelled lieutenant-colonels, Augustan clergymen and poet-anglers to the Elizabethan Thomas Bastard, bemoaning the decline of the sport because fishes decrease and fishers multiply Jonathan Keates in the Observer Christmas Books

JEREMY PAXMAN

PENGUIN BOOKS

PENGUIN BOOKS

Published by the Penguin Group

Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

Penguin Putnam Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA

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Penguin Books (NZ) Ltd, Cnr Rosedale and Airborne Roads, Albany, Auckland, New Zealand

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Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

www.penguin.com

First published by Michael Joseph 1994

Published in Penguin Books 1995

Copyright Jeremy Paxman, 1994

All rights reserved

The moral right of the editor has been asserted

Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publishers prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

ISBN: 978-0-14-191127-4

C ONTENTS

A CKNOWLEDGEMENTS

T he greatest debt of any anthologizer is to those who have written the books from which he draws his extracts. After that come the people who help you to find the material. Pre-eminent among them are the staff of the British Library, who see all kinds of eccentrics trying to prove the Chancellor of the Exchequer is a visitor from the Planet Zog, and treat all inquiries with the same courtesy.

I should also thank Justin Knowles, publisher of The Fly Fishers Classic Library, for introducing me to many of the great British fishing books and for putting me in touch with Kevin Mackenna, currently compiling the definitive bibliography of Irish angling literature, who in turn pointed me in the direction of books Id never even heard of. David Zincavage, one of the great authorities on American angling literature, suggested half-a-dozen transatlantic authors. My brother and fishing companion, James Paxman, lent me his favourite books. David Stocker, despite a previous long and occasionally fractious correspondence, volunteered a list of candidates for inclusion. Jocelyn Godley and Ed Hill each independently pointed me to the delights of Robert Traver, a Michigan judge with an eye to the important things in life. Brian Harris at London Zoo answered queries about dangerous fish. Bruce Sandison put me in touch with Robert Howden, factor at Berriedale, Caithness, who supplied the hilarious French newspaper account of George Vs fishing prowess. Matthew Fort, the food writer and fishing fanatic, rifled through his collection of fishing books for interesting or amusing recipes. His brother Tom, collector of fishing books, shared his enthusiasms with me while we were both on a pretty unsuccessful trip to try to catch dorado in Brazil. Brod Sullivan, fabled boatman of Lough Currane, recited the anglers prayer after much drink one night on the Kola peninsula. John and Penny Mortimer provided their photocopier and plentiful good company. Christopher Butterworth, president of the Flyfishers Club, gave me lunch and then allowed me rare access to the club library, to which the librarian, John Morgan, has written an exhaustive catalogue.

Most of all, I thank the many people with whom I have shared the pleasures of fishing. Theres an awful lot of tosh talked about what Walton called the brotherhood of the angle. But it does exist.

The Angler E.T. Reed, Punch, 1892

P ERMISSIONS

The author and publishers would like to thank the following for permission to reprint copyright material:

Illustrations: to Mary Evans Picture Library for the illustrations on pages .

B.B.: to David Higham Associates Ltd for The Naturalists Bedside Book (Michael Joseph, 1980), The Wayfaring Tree (Hollis & Carter), The Fishermans Bedside Book (White Lion Books, 1993), The Idle Countryman (Eyre & Spottiswode), Fishermans Folly (Boydell & Brewer); H.E. Bates: to Laurence Pollinger Ltd on behalf of the estate of H.E. Bates for The Little Fishes from Sugar for the Horse (Michael Joseph Ltd); Elizabeth Bishop: to Farrar, Straus & Giroux Inc. for The Fish from The Complete Poems 19271979 by Elizabeth Bishop. Copyright 1979, 1983 by Alice Helen Methfessel; Edmund Blunden: to Peters Fraser & Dunlop Group Ltd for The Face of England and The Pike from Collected Poems; W.H. Canaway: to Curtis Brown Ltd for A Snowdon Stream, copyright W.H. Canaway 1958. Reproduced by permission of Curtis Brown Ltd, London on behalf of the copyright owner; Raymond Carver: to Capra Press for Deschutes River and Bobber from At Night the Salmon Run, copyright 1976 by Raymond Carver; Charles Chevenix-Trench: to Longman Group Ltd for The Poacher and the Squire