No, this isn't an account of world cruise by a bunch of geriatrics, it is an anthology of salmon fishing tales which should have been published in 1496, but fell into the dreadful gap between the idea of doing a book and the actual doing of it. Before you ask, I have also always wanted to be a famous rock guitarist, but I could never be bothered to learn music, either. Anyway, I did eventually assemble this anthology, largely because the original editor designated failed to attend to his duties and kept going fishing.

What you get are twenty-seven tales and a poem (by Ted Hughes), one of the stories being the amazing, though oft forgotten account of the "Earl of Tankerville, versus a Dog, the property of the Earl of Hume", which is the only known case in which a dog has been sued in the British courts and managed to win its case. In case you are asking how this ended up in a fishing book, all you need to know right now is that the dog was accused of poaching salmon.

Then there is the tale of Georgina Ballantine landing the record Scottish salmon, one of those stories that often seems to be forgotten, largely because every time it has been reprinted it has been in some out of the way place. Well, now you can read it, along with Negley Farson, Hugh Falkus, Lee Wulff, Roderick Haig-Brown and a host of other greats.