The Lightning Thread: Fishological Moments and The Pursuit of Paradise

by David Profumo

From award winning novelist and journalist David Profumo comes a dazzling work about the restorative power of nature and finding joy in simple pleasures. 

The Lightning Thread takes the reader on a journey of unexpected delight, personal pleasure and profound discovery. From angling with his father on a spating burn at the height of the Profumo Affair to knocking back mojitos while hunting for Permit, ‘the Robocop of the sea’, off the coast of Cuba. Much more than just another book about fishing, The Lightning Thread is an exploration of joy and a celebration of simple pleasures in a too complicated world. The significance of angling, as David writes about it, far transcends the mere catching of fish. It is about the extraordinary places he has visited, the remarkable people he has met and the great happiness pursuing his life’s passion has brought him. Written with warmth, wit and lightly worn erudition, his references range from Ted Hughes to Wittgenstein, from W.C. Fields to Milton, and always hovering in the background is the spectre of Isaak Walton’s TheCompleat Angler, the Ur-text of halieutic literature.

A work of the passionate eclecticism, deep intelligence and virtuosically exuberant prose from one of our finest writers, The Lightning Thread is a future classic and the culmination of lifetime's obsession. 
 

Audiobook

Published May 27, 2021

Reviews

[Alli Tripp]

With a sprinkling of humor and a dash of sass and wit, this fishing adventurer takes the reader all over the world chasing trout  salmon and miriad of other fish in these scrim filled stories interwoven with literary references to fishing classic moments, monsters and mythology, numerous beautiful nature scenes and continuous adventurous fishing memories from the author, this is an amazing  fishing journey travelog. This is just epic, packed with stories from Around Scottish rivers, Caribbean seas, Alaskan outback, India's mountain rivers, and all over the world, it makes the reader feel they are making their own timeless fishing philosophy and dipping their waders into the deep side of the river through wondrous mythology, the splash and fin of the ones that got away and the ones they jumped in the water to pull out, or that pulled the fisher right in! It takes the reader along, all over the world.

[Paul Graham]

As a former angler I thought this would prove an interesting read. Unfortunately not! It was quite simply a narative of a number of showy offy fishing trips in showy offy language. A complete bore.

[Andrew Paget]

4.5 stars. A great fly fishing book full of interesting anecdotes and histories - I particularly enjoyed the chapter summarising the literary history. Longer review to follow

[Chris Williams]

Self indulgent and verbose.
Couldn't finish it.

[Keith Lucas]

Sadly I found it a bit of a mess. So I didn't finish it