Writer, fly-fisher, river restorationist
Raw sewage and London’s Thames Tunnel? Crunchable data on the social and community benefits of angling, from the banks of the Wandle to the wild hills of Assynt? You’re right, it could only be my latest guest blog for the Financial Times’ How To Spend It lifestyle ezine… click on over to read and enjoy!
My publisher Merlin Unwin promised me a few months ago that there’s nothing quite like the moment when the first copy of your first book finally hits your desk. And guess what? He was right. After years of research and exploration, and almost unbelievable generosity and help from more than 200 people (count ’em on the […]
Even when you’re supposed to be doing something else entirely, most fly-fishers know from experience, fish can just come out of nowhere. Crammed onto a chilly chairlift in the Austrian Alps last week with my ski-writer sister-in-law and a couple of random Russians, I ducked my chin into my collar against the wind, glanced […]
After several successful outings on his own home waters earlier in 2011, during which I’m almost certain I mentioned a little river in South London once or twice… … it was pretty much inevitable that my West Country fishing partner in crime Dominic Garnett would eventually take the bait and visit the Wandle for the first […]
Especially since that revelatory week in Vail when I found it was perfectly possible to ski in the morning, slip away to Gore Creek or the Eagle River for the lunchtime midge hatch, and still get back onto the slopes before the lifts closed, I’ve been deeply convinced by the leftfield concept of winter fly-fishing. […]
Traditionally, when an author finishes writing a book, he thankfully slams the door of his garret and clatters down the rickety stairs to the fleshpots of the nearest big city… there to get utterly amnesiac on Guinness, absinthe or whatever qualifies as the local obliviator of choice. By contrast, back in September, all I wanted […]
Since January this year, in my role as editor and lead blogger for the Wandle Piscators’ website, I’ve been contributing occasional guest blogs for the Financial Times’ lifestyle ezine, How To Spend It. As I wrote shortly after I’d received the invitation from PR guru Drew Benvie and How To Spend It‘s deputy editor Maria […]
(Photo: Dominic Garnett) Every blog has to start somewhere, just like every writer’s career. Fishing-writing got its hooks into me almost ten years ago, soon after I moved from retail to full-time marketing (write about what you know and inspires you is the oldest cliché in the book, but it also happens to be the […]
