Published: 1992
Author: the best of H.T. Sheringham
Reviewed by: Chris Plumb
Chosen and Introduced by Tom Fort
The world of angling – or at least angling literature, owes a great debt to a meeting between two anglers on the banks of the River Lambourn near Newbury in September 1903. The two anglers in question were William Senior and Hugh Tempest Sheringham. Senior aka ‘The Red Spinner’ was editor of The Field and he offered Sheringham the position of Angling Editor, a post he held for the next 27 years until his untimely death from cancer at the age of 54. Thus was started a rich vein of angling literature by which many other 20th Century angling writers would be judged (and many would be found wanting!!). In fact Chris Yates has at some time been given the sobriquet ‘The Best Angling Writer Since Sheringham’!
This selection edited by Tom Fort is really the ‘best of the best’. 24 articles culled from 4 of Sheringham’s books and from pieces he wrote for The Field and The Journal of The Flyfishers Club. Sheringham was an eclectic angler equally at home with game fishing as well as coarse – so there is something for everyone in this volume. In fact – quite unusually for his day HTS, dispensed with some tired old conventions, as the introduction to his book Coarse Fishing puts it – “Salmon fishing is good; trout fishing is good; but to the complete angler neither is intrinsically better than the pursuit of roach, or tench, or perch or pike.” Unlike HTS, you certainly wouldn’t have got Halford writing an article entitled ‘In Praise of Chub’!
This angling creed can be found through out the book – none more so than in the Chapter ‘Some Kennet Days’ where sessions with the dry fly are interrupted to fish the worm for roach, dace and perch. I have to admit my previous exposure to Sheringham was in the anthologies of others (notably BB) and this volume gave me an excellent, and fuller, introduction to the great man’s writing. I first read it last year • having borrowed a copy from Glenn Smith (aka Spindle). I was not a quarter of the way through it when I realised I wouldn’t be able to give it back!!
Thankfully it is still in-print (Amazon currently have it for £16.95) so I was in possession of my own copy by the time we next met up!
Sheringham writes with a fresh, elegant and expressive style. He was and still is very accessible – you can easily relate to his triumphs and his blanks. His humour and wit shine through and the stories will often leave you with a wry, knowing smile! Sheringham speaks to you as an equal and although some of the words printed in this book first saw the light of day nearly 100 years ago anglers of today will still enjoy them.
Merlin Unwin Books ISBN 187367404X
There is much I could have chosen to quote from in this volume but I’ve plumped for this classic piece from the opening paragraphs of ‘The Big Carp’
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“So far as my experience goes, it is certain that good luck is the most vital part of the equipment of him who would seek to slay large carp. For some men I admit the usefulness of skill and pertinacity; for myself, I take my stand entirely upon luck. To the novice I would say: Cultivate your luck. Prop it up with omens and signs of good purport. Watch for magpies on your path. Form the habit of avoiding old women who squint. Throw salt over your left shoulder. Touch wood with the forefinger of your right hand when-ever you are not doing anything else. Be on friendly terms with a black cat. Turn your money under the new moon. Walk around ladders. Don’t start on a Friday. Stir the materials for Christmas pudding and wish. Perform all other such rites as you know and hear of. These things are important in carp fishing.”
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