The Secret Carp

"It’s a funny thing, given that I was born in England, grew up in Shetland, and have done virtually all of my fishing in the UK, but most of the fishing writing I enjoy is American. Four of the books I’ve chosen here are from the US, and it could easily have been all five. It’s just a matter of taste, I suppose, but there are only a few British angling books that have found a permanent place on my shelves. This is one. Chris Yates can be a frustrating writer. Sometimes, he adopts an oddly archaic tone, as if he’s writing a Billy Bunter story, and it doesn’t read comfortably for me at all. But when he lets that drop, you see just how skilled he is. The Secret Carp is about a hidden lake, somewhere in England, and it’s narrated over the course of a single night and day spent fishing there. Yates is great at noticing. He sees and hears and smells the world around him with real acuity, and the short time-window of the book allows him the opportunity to really dive in and revel in that detail. What he’s also great at is expressing joy, excitement, the youthful fervour that all anglers know—and, if they’re lucky, still regularly experience. He’s able to convey, better than almost anyone, what it’s actually like to catch, and to anticipate catching, a fish. That’s no small feat."