Kim Clover

“Again I find myself on the rivers bank. Between the known and the unknown……… This then is me the hunter, with the thrill of the hunt in my blood.

And then more.

I look at my line and envy what it knew I did not. The unknown.

From the float down it disappeared into a world I could never.

And then I could.

All of a sudden I could.

Hold your breath and I promise to take you with me.”

Have you ever sat on a riverbank and watched the water, glimpses of silver fish twisting and turning, seemingly with no real purpose. Go with the author and enter a world unknown to us, in the rivers that flow all around us. Meet the longfish, the eels fighting for dominance of the open river, with the ultimate betrayal by Anguilla in league with that most vicious of fish, the killer pike, Qeetus. A psychopath with his own plans for his supposed partner. Meet the Roundfish, among them the wise roach Delair and the ever wonderful Chub, Thump, large, fat and either eating or searching for food and always surprised at the things he says and does – even as he does them, looked over as he is by the watergod Aitchtuo still honoured in the sacred rite ‘The Calling of the Scales’.

The author is married, lives in Yorkshire following an upbringing in Reading, or as he says it

“Born 56 years ago in Reading Berks. One of six. My mother was a St.Helenian. She left the beautiful island in the South Atlantic and made her way to England. She married my father in Reading……something I could never quite bring myself to forgive her for.

I started work as an apprentice engineer, and soon realised I was never going to be an apprentice or an engineer. Living on a council estate meant being a labourer, a painter and decorator or joining the army, so I delivered telegrams for the post office.

I then worked with explosives, radioactivity, and small rubber seals that were paramount in importance. Twelve years with the Ministry of Defence, enough said.

Whilst all this happened so did marriage.

I discovered reading, writing, English mustard and that white wine goes with fish.

I dished out human organs for transplant, was no stranger to the mortuary, put up TV satellite systems, and delivered and collected rich people’s cars.

Stir all this around for half a century sitting by the river bank and the result is Anguilla’s retribution.