Writer, fly-fisher, river restorationist
Over on my Urbantrout website (the continuity site for my first book, Trout in Dirty Places) I’ve just launched a new edition of my eco-branded Urbantrout Kryptek Highlander fishing caps. These are the same amazing, cutting-edge-camo patterned trucker-style caps that I brought to the UK for the first time last year – and now they’re […]
I’ve got a thing for a really good fabric print. It certainly started when I was working at the big old Liberty department store in the mid-1990s, first on the shop floor, merchandising a 15-yard wall of silk ties, and later in the buying offices, where I’d spend hours rifling through fabric swatches, picking out […]
In gaps between briefs for several fascinating freelance copywriting gigs in busy London agencies, I’ve recently been devoting a little extra time to new product development for my Urbantrout eco-brand… … launched in 2013 and gaining a satisfyingly culty underground following among them as knows (look at that lucky orange hoodie on West Country fishing guide Pete […]
However many urban river restoration projects you get to know (and I got very familiar with a large number of them in the course of researching and writing Trout in Dirty Places), there’s something about meeting new people on the banks of their once-dirty-and-forgotten river that never grows old. So it was a particular pleasure […]
As I’ve recently noted over on my Urbantrout blog, this is the time of year which can show even the best angler exactly what he’s been failing to catch all season… and early winter on the Wandle is no exception to this universal law. It’s a curious fact that since we saw that first pair […]
Several evenings in the past two months, I’ve followed the track of one of our previous volunteer balsam-pulling days, sniping late stragglers that pop their heads above the parapet of rusting brambles and bindweed. Absent overshading and other competition from its fellows, it’s amazing how the most inconspicuous seedling will snatch its chance to shoot […]
Having been quite closely involved in bringing World Rivers Day to the Wandle for the first time in 2008, it’s going to be a real buzz to see this year’s global festival marked by the official launch of the Wandle Valley’s HLF landscape partnership projects. I’ll be spending this Sunday at the Wandle Piscators’ fishing […]
If you want to stroll the banks of a manicured chalkstream, or cast a fly across a well-appointed salmon river, there’s plenty of old-school tweed and waxed cotton to help you look the part. Alternatively, if you’re planning a week’s survival camp in Norway or Kamchatka, with nothing to keep you alive except bear-spray and […]
