Having watched Chris Yates many times on the television, I decided to beg, steal or borrow his book, and I did, not the steal part, I hasten to add. As some of the other reviewers have said the title is a little misleading because it is not really a book on how to fish (which I was rather pleased about. Because learning how to fish from a book fills me with horror). The only way to learn how to fish is to actually fish, preferably with someone who knows what they are doing.
However, I digress. Yates is an accomplished angler, well known throughout the fishing fraternity and if I said that he was a little eccentric, I am sure he would not be offended. He has a liking for old fishing tackle, reels and rods and quite often fishes with them. He is I suppose the nearest thing we have got to a modern day `Mr. Crabtree' and the book is about how he likes to conduct himself when fishing. To the extent that the day out and the location seem to be more paramount than catching any fish. There should always be a little kettle on the boil on the camping stove and a bottle of wine cooling in the keepnet. This is a stroll down memory lane for many of us, but the match angler would probably hang himself from the nearest tree after reading this book. This is really about a way of life. The days when people had time to relax and enjoy their leisure time and not worry about how bad the traffic was likely to be going home etc etc.