Silver Shoals - Five Fish that Made Britain

Product Description

A wonderful and important book, that from its first pages draws the reader along on a fascinating, gripping, often funny journey.

Robert Macfarlane, bestselling author of Underland.

Overview

An idiosyncratic history of our island story told through five iconic fish. On these rain-swept islands in the North Atlantic man and fish go back a long way. Fish are woven through the fabric of the country's history: we depend on them - for food, for livelihood and for fun - and now their fate depends on us in a relationship which has become more complex, passionate and precarious in the sophisticated 21st Century.

Content

In Silver Shoals Charles Rangeley-Wilson travels north, south, east and west through the British Isles tracing the histories, living and past, of our most iconic fish - cod, carp, eels, salmon and herring - and of the fishermen who catch them and care for them.

Experiences

• In the company of trawlermen, longshoremen, conservationists and anglers.
• Charles goes to sea in a trawler.
• Whiles away hot afternoons setting eel nets.
• Tries to bag his first elusive carp.
• Drifts for herring on Guy Fawkes night as fireworks starburst the sky.

Historical Exploration

Underscoring this journey is a fascinating historical exploration of these creatures that have shaped our island story.