The Catch

âAn absolute gem . . . I was delightfully lost by the river throughoutâ Paul Whitehouse
âMarvellous . . . The Catch leaves both its writer and its reader wonderfully "lost in water"â Robert Macfarlane
âPenetrating and poetic, filled with honeyed prose and thoughtful criticismâ The Times
A brilliant blend of memoir and biography, The Catch is a stunning meditation on poetry and nature, and a quiet reflection on what it means to be a father and a son.
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It is in the midst of a swirling river, casting a line, that Mark Wormald meets Ted Hughes.

He stands where the poet stood, forty years ago, because fishing was Ted Hughesâs way of breathing â" and because the poet''s writing has made Mark understand that it has always been his way of breathing, too.

Using Hughesâs poetry collection River and his fishing diaries as a guide, Mark returns again and again to the rivers and lakes in Britain and Ireland where the poet fished. At times, he uses Ted''s fly patterns; at others his rods. It is an obsession; a fundamental connection to nature; a thrilling wildness; an elemental pursuit. But it is also a release and a consolation, as Mark fishes after the sudden death of his mother and during the slow fading of his father.