Brian Clarke

[Little Roachess]

I have just finished reading Brian Clarke's book "On Fishing". I am the kind of reader who follows the flow of a book through chapters until I have completed every page, but when I say I have finished this book, I mean that I got three quaters of the way through it when seriously I could not continue reading the rhetoric of what I would see as a very opinionated, chauvenistic, haughty, and self-important man who throughout the book continued to impose his own puffed-up ego, full of his own self-importance that every angler approved all his many articles (apparently he wrote many a fishing column in the Times newspaper). He continuously referred to this fact, repeating himself not only with his boasting, but also complete whole chapters were elaborated upon, or repeated. A continuous and blatant name dropping occurred to whit the litarary style implied how well-heeled he wanted the reading fishing public to see him. Am I the only one who felt like this about this man, or is his self-importance provided because the angling community really have hung on every word he says, or has this man been surrounded by sychophants to present day? Either way, I cannot imagine reading anything by this author again-glad I did not pay for the "privilege", as I picked the book from our local library, and am sorry I did!!!

[Dick Dastardly]

Never heard of him!

[Chris Plumb]

Thats a shame - I quite enjoyed some of his writing for The Times over the years.....

 

 

C.

[philocalist]

..... not read the book ... though it's currently available for the price of just ONE PENNY via Amazon!

Maybe THAT tells a story?

[Little Roachess]

Thing is he critisizes Angling Times in his book, and seems to hold ordinary anglers in contempt. In one chapter he writes about a poor boy and a rich kid, and slags off the poor boy for not catching anything because he didn't have the expensive equipment of the rich kid!! He also had a go at the more sturdier angler. I wouldn't mind but he also seemed to have a go at the Angling Times for it's sexual references, and then proceeds to devote a whole chapter on sexual activities on the river bank using the sort of public schoolboy humour and derogartory terminology suggestive of his own perceptions of what people want to read. Incidentally, I stopped reading his book after the chapter ridiculing the financially challenged youngster, it just put the tin hat on the man's inability to reach the reader, let alone the angler. Let's face it, how much did the average angler pay out for their first piece of fishing equipment? At the age of 10 I had a net to catch sticklebacks, and borrowed my friends cane rod with a hook and a piece of cork with a maggot on the end of it to try catch a fish, all those years ago, and the guy on the bank opposite clapped with great pleasure when my friend eventually brought in a large pike!!

 

Angling is about having a go with anything you have at your disposal, isn't it?

[Alan Roe]

It sounds like he has done himself no favours with this book which is a shame as he has put together some good stuff in the past notably The Trout and the Fly which he co-wrote with John Goddard and In Pursuit of Stillwater Trout which is another thoughtfully written book.

The other book of his I reviewed somewhere was the Stream which is a tale of out times about the demise of a stream and how it came about with no particular blameworthy individual. It carried echoes of Rachel Carthy's Silent Spring and is a thoughtful read

 

If Little Roachess you have a particular interest in trout fishing then The Trout and the Fly is a classic must read whilst it is clear that Mr Clarke has aroused your ire don't let it put you off that one book.

 

Your point about angling being about having a go with what you have is a very fair one and one with which I wholly empathise I was once the poor kid who couldn't find the 14/-6d for a fixed spool reel thats about 72pence in todays coinage! Not having the gear made me strive harder and in the end became a much better angler because of it.

[MordenMike]

He still writes a monthly column for the Times and whilst he's mainly a game angler I've always enjoyed his articles and certainly

haven't found his writing as flawed as you suggest. But I haven't read his 'On fishing' yet so I have just added it to my birthday list,

and if my wife can find it I'll have a read and see if his style is better suited to the shorter format rather than the longer.

 

mike

[Alan Stubbs]

Brian Clarke's articles appear onthe first Monday of the month in The Times and I'vew read them for as long as I can remember.

He's certainly opinionated but both thoughtful and thought-provoking, but isn't that the role of an opinion-piece or a columnist?

 

His pieces are mainly game fishing orientated and his coarse fishing pieces are either mildly mocking (a piece regarding the capture of a record breaking perch, comes to mind), or downright scabrous.... he loves to have a dig at carp anglers and the whole going into mourning at the passing of a 'name' carp.

 

One thing is for sure.. he is very readable.

[philocalist]

  Little Roachess said:

Thing is he critisizes Angling Times in his book, and seems to hold ordinary anglers in contempt. In one chapter he writes about a poor boy and a rich kid, and slags off the poor boy for not catching anything because he didn't have the expensive equipment of the rich kid!! He also had a go at the more sturdier angler. I wouldn't mind but he also seemed to have a go at the Angling Times for it's sexual references, and then proceeds to devote a whole chapter on sexual activities on the river bank using the sort of public schoolboy humour and derogartory terminology suggestive of his own perceptions of what people want to read. Incidentally, I stopped reading his book after the chapter ridiculing the financially challenged youngster, it just put the tin hat on the man's inability to reach the reader, let alone the angler. Let's face it, how much did the average angler pay out for their first piece of fishing equipment? At the age of 10 I had a net to catch sticklebacks, and borrowed my friends cane rod with a hook and a piece of cork with a maggot on the end of it to try catch a fish, all those years ago, and the guy on the bank opposite clapped with great pleasure when my friend eventually brought in a large pike!!

 

Angling is about having a go with anything you have at your disposal, isn't it?

 

 

 

 

That's just rung a bell (the comment about the rich kid / poor kid) ... I've read the same tale somewhere else recently in a book I DID enjoy ... very anecdotal fishing stuff, with a lot of it being based up in the north-east, around the Tees and Swale ... is this the same guy? ... I think he was originally from Darlington, or very close?

[chesters1]

isnt everything you read opinionated ,someone elses outlooks on what they see ,you could sit two people down looking at the exact same scene and get two different opinions and ofcourse your opinion of those opinions.