At first glance this appars to be a book about fishing and fighting; but hold on a minute, isn’t the author’s name familiar? Nick is the grandson of Frank Sawyer, the great Avon river keeper, champion of the deep nymph and something of a hard act to follow. Nick is a soldier who has visited over twenty countries with the army, fishing every spare moment, but without noticing anything particularly interesting.

We fish with him for trout and huchen in Bosnia; toman, baung and kelah in Malaysia; tilapia in Kenya; marbled trout in Macedonia; and catfish in Poland; so there is no lack of variety as far as the locations and species go. Though much of the book is about soldiering, Sawyer provides some interesting insider viewpoints on the politics and the people of the countries concerned – the title being somewhat misleading as few of his postings involved any active service. If you are hell-bent on collecting Sawyer books, a definite, otherwise a pass.