Another Fishing Year was a strange one for me…..whilst halfway through it, I said to a friend that I couldn’t decide whether I liked it or not. “You haven’t stopped talking about it for the past half hour!” came the reply.
Then the penny dropped. I’d devoured that book at every opportunity, even to the extent of going to bed early so that I could get a few more chapters read. It’s funny when a book gets you like that.
Another Fishing Year is a diary of John Wilson’s year and takes you inside the fishing world of one of the best-known anglers in the UK. John’s schedule is a hectic one, and one that many readers will be quite envious of. Most of us fish as a hobby and fit it between work. To John, angling is both.
What I find so nice about John Wilson is that his enthusiasm for angling is comparable to that of an eight year old child! He loves his fishing now as much as he ever did. To me, that is very important. Once commercialism comes into angling and it becomes your job, it must be difficult sometimes to get the balance right. Not for Mr. Wilson, it would appear. You can almost hear his famous laugh at times.
As well as some great tales of angling adventures, and some frustrating ones, the book also touches on the emotional side that comes with being a ‘celebrity’ in touch with so many people.
As it’s a diary, the book is broken down into many small ‘chapters’ i.e. days. This makes it incredibly easy to read, as you don’t have to spend hours in order to keep up with the ‘plot’. I found myself picking it up, reading a ‘day’, putting it down and then coming back to it later to do the same.
On a purely selfish level, having worked with a famous author before, I’d have liked to have seen a bit more about the non-angling side of things. i.e. what happens on the days that John isn’t fishing (I’d have thought that he spend a lot of time writing and getting ready for all of his fishing trips). However, this didn’t detract from the pleasure of the book • it’s just me being nosey!
In summary, I can honestly say that I enjoyed reading Another Fishing Year. It was refreshing light-reading that didn’t tax the brain and made a nice escape from the miserable weather we’ve been having here recently! As you’d expect with John Wilson, there are some awesome photographs that really sum up the mood of his location at the time, whether it be catching Nile Perch on an exotic lake, or chub from his local river.
Another Fishing Year has an RRP of £16.99 and you can buy it from Amazon by clicking here.
John Wilson Books For Sale
