Casting shadows

by Tom Fort

A Times and Sunday Times Book of the Year

Peer into the secret, silent world of the freshwater fish and explore evolution of the art and industry of fishing in Britain's rivers and streams.
From cunning Neolithic traps, intricate Roman nets and quarrellous Victorian societies to the evolution of angling and eventual gentrification of river access, this history spans thousands of years and ends with a poignant call to protect the underwater world from the horrors of industrial fishing and farming.

Meanwhile, another thread of the narrative weaves in the lives of the fishes themselves: the incredible struggles of the Atlantic salmon and secretive eel; the pike, a lean and camouflaged predator; the carp, huge and stately, begetter of obsessions; the exquisite spotted brown trout and its silver cousin, the grayling.

Lives built on and around fishing have largely faded from Britain, but fishermen and conservationists are working tirelessly to prevent the same fate befalling the fishes.

Unknown Binding

About the author

Tom Fort was education at Eton and Balliol Collge, Oxford. On leaving Oxford he went to work as a reporter at the Slough Observer and the Slough Evening Mail before joining the BBC in 1978 where he worked in the BBC Radio newsroom in London for 22 years.

He took early retirement in 2000, just before the publication of his social history of lawns and lawn-mowing, The Grass is Greener.

Reviews

[Trevor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many people believe that the ‘Financial Times’ newspaper only covers subjects such as derivatives, hedge funds, conglomerates, venture capital and other financial matters. The author however was, for many years, the FT’s fishing correspondent, a job which belies that venerable newspaper’s reputation for being dry and dusty.
This is a very well written and interesting book. It is about fishing, but much more about the social, economic and cultural aspects of fishing and how they have changed over time. It is therefore of interest to a much wider audience than those simply interested in receiving advice on bait and tackle. Changes in the world of fishing very much reflect wider changes in society.
I think it is probably a book to dip and out of and to read chapters as they catch your eye than simply to read it from start to finish. I confess I did skip through a couple of chapters that interested me less. An excellent book, beautifully research, well written and well worth a read.

[James Lewis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Comprehensive history on the subject but its probably the subjects own fault that the book can be a bit dull

[Roger Morgan-Grenville · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heroic effort at making a dry subject a little bit wetter.