The Summer Crew: A tale of salmon fishing on Speyside

by John Bennett

Sandy Geddes, skipper of the salmon boats on the River Spey, is worried. The new recruits for the Summer Crew are the worst he’s ever seen, which is a problem because catches are down and he needs all the help he can get. Follow the often hilarious adventures of Sandy and the Summer Crew and the various road fishermen, poachers, politicians, ravers, TV presenters, clergymen and aristocrats who cross their path. The Summer Crew is a novel set in the late 1980s on the salmon netting at the mouth of the River Spey. Summer Crews, which were a mix of permanent employees, students and part time workers, were hired to fish the summer grilse run for the months of June, July and August. The book follows the progress of the new recruits as they struggle to learn the ropes and integrate with the older, more experienced crew. For the most part it’s a gently comic look at Scottish rural life in the vein of Parahandy or Compton MacKenzie - there are chapters about local agricultural show, the village fete, a grouse shoot and the wider community beyond the salmon fishing, however, towards the end of the book, as summer comes to an end the tone of the book changes, the salmon fishery is facing hard times, and difficult decisions have to be made.

174 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 2, 2020

About the author

Librarian note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

John^Bennett

Reviews

[Rory Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

A highly enjoyable and amusing read. It's quite easy to get through it in a day or two. Despite the short length you get to know the characters well and they grow on you throughout. Also extremely informative on both a type of fishing I knew nothing of and the remarkable life cycle of Atlantic salmon.

[Jean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easy read, great characters, fun and yet with serious undertones on politics and traditional ways being lost. I know Doric fairly well having lived in the north east of Scotland many years but think this book would be a challenge for those less familiar with the language.

[John Gordon · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Doric has a musical rhythm, and John Bennett is a masterful storyteller!

[BathtubBillionaire82 · Rating 1 out of 5]

scottish accents should not be written into books what does anything mean