That Strange Alchemy

“I need to start thinking like a shooter, for shooters and fishers, even though they are often the same person, think very differently.”

So writes author Laurence Catlow as his fishing season on the lonely northern rivers comes to an end, and he prepares for his next shooting season on his own small shoot on the edge of the Pennines.

Many sportsmen enjoy both shooting and fishing, and in That Strange Alchemy, Catlow examines 

• fishing and shooting memories and why they differ
• why both sports are so important to him
• the loss of his shooting dog and the undertaking of a new one
• best fishing days and how these differ from best shooting days
• the anxieties of running a guest shooting day
• fishing in middle age compared to in youth

Catlow writes with great wit, modesty and insight.

Availability:

Illustrations:
50 Black & white photographs

Pages:
304

Published:
Sep 10, 2008

ISBN:
9781906122034

About the Author:

Laurence Catlow is considered one of the finest and most thoughtful writers on flyfishing today.

He has a doctorate in Classics from Cambridge University and was Head of Classics at Sedbergh School. He lives in Brough, Cumbria, and fishes mainly in that county and in Yorkshire, although his pursuit of trout also takes him further afield, to Scotland, Wales, Shropshire and Hampshire.

His other interests include shooting and beating, walking his dogs, wine, religion and classical music.

Laurence Catlow writes about shooting and fishing for the sporting press.

He is author of Confessions of a Shooting, Fishing Man, Once a Flyfisher, Private Thoughts from a Small Shoot and That Strange Alchemy. all published by Merlin Unwin Books.