Guest Review: Gone Fishing By Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse

 Two comedy greats talk life, friendship and the joys of fishing...

Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse have been friends for 30 years, but when life intervened, what was once a joyous and spontaneous friendship dwindled to the odd phone call or occasional catch up. Then, Glory Be! They were both diagnosed with heart disease and realised that time is short. They'd better spend it fishing...

So they dusted off their kits, chucked on their waders and ventured into the achingly beautiful British countryside to fish, rediscover the joys of their friendship and ruminate on some of life's most profound questions, such as: How did we get so old? Where are all the fish? What are your favourite pocket meats? What should we do if we find a corpse?

Following the success of the BBC's Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing series, this wonderful book by two lifelong friends is a love letter to the joys of angling, the thrill of the catch and the virtue of having a right daft laff with your mates. On the fish, the equipment, the food, and the locations, Gone Fishing is the perfect book for fans of Bob Mortimer, Paul Whitehouse and for anyone who wants to read a brilliantly written and endlessly funny joint memoir on life, friendship and joys of fishing.

Review: Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse are two comedians and friends. After both underwent heart operations / heart procedures, Paul Whitehouse, a keen angler, suggested fishing trips as a way of recuperating, getting out of the house, enjoying the countryside and partaking of a hobby that is mentally relaxing. These trips ticked all those boxes, so they came up with the idea of making a television series, with the two of them ruminating on a riverbank about the meaning of life and the universe whilst trying to catch fish. Several series later, this book was published in 2019 as an accompaniment to the television programmes.

Whilst not a definitive guide to angling, this book covers the authors’ introductions to angling and how they found the trips therapeutic, giving them the idea for the tv programmes. There is even a chapter on healthy recipes, including one for an example of one of Bob’s famous “pocket meats”. I am not a fan of angling, having had a bad experience on my one and only fishing trip in my childhood, but I found the book entertaining, sprinkled throughout with the duo’s anarchic humour. There are also some thought provoking chapters covering the ecology of rivers and how anglers are best placed to know when fish stocks become depleted. There is a lot of jargon in the book, which I found difficult to follow at times. So if you want to know the difference between a waggler and a quill (types of float), or Quantum Radical and Dynamite Crave (types of synthetic bait), then this book will help.

Overall, I found this to be an entertaining and humorous book; less an earnest guide to angling but more about enjoying the pleasures of the countryside.

To order your copy now, just click here!