Fishing as breathing
A River Runs Through Me: A life of salmon fishing in Scotland Andrew Douglas-Home (Elliott & Thompson, £14.99)
The Catch: Fishing for Ted Hughes Mark Wormald (Bloomsbury, £20)
MODERN fishing books tend to be manuals or memoirs—also known as science fiction and romantic fiction—but neither of these volumes fall into such categories. Andrew Douglas-Home’s meditations on a life spent by the Tweed, delivered in more than 50 short, shard-like chapters, is considerably more than the sum of its parts, although its typically self-deprecating author would probably deny any such claim.
His book possesses an honesty and pawky humour that invite comparison with by his late uncle (the former Prime Minister); Andrew (whom I have known since school) comes from a colourful and distinguished Border family. His father, Edward, was its most low-key member, opting for a quiet rural life after war
