The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

In a thread in the 'Bankside Nature' section of the forum the other day, I mentioned how, as a youngster, I used to go to a local wood and stay into darkness, listening for sounds of nocturnal animals. This may have sounded familiar to some, and perhaps this is why: In Chris Yates’ excellent Nightwalk, he wrote about doing the same thing when he was a lad. Indeed, it was this that inspired me to explore the dark in this manner as a 14-year old, 33 years ago.

No I don’t have a time machine. It was actually mentioned many years before the book came out, in an article entitled Yatesy written by Tim Paisley for Coarse Angler magazine (Oct 1982). Tim wrote: “He is currently writing three books. One is to do with carp fishing and one is about the night, about darkness. Chris has had a fascination with the dark since an early age. As a boy he used to force himself to sit for hours on end in a pitch black conifer wood and fight the panic of his fear so he could enjoy the beauty of the dark.” There followed a quote from Chris: “The night is man’s oldest enemy, but making peace with it, and conquering the natural fear of it can lead you to some memorable and beautiful moments.” These words caught my youthful imagination and I decided to experience it for myself. I believe Tim’s article to be the first mention in print of what became Nightwalk, eventually published in 2012. Intriguingly, he didn’t say what the third book was going to be about.

Anyway, the thread reminded me of this superb and inspirational article and I thought TFF members might be interested. Here’s a scan of a photo which accompanied the piece. I'd like to scan the whole article to share with the forum but I might get in trouble for that. Not even sure if it's ok to put the pic up but it's low res and couldn't really be reproduced to any standard in print so probably ok?

Nobody's going to worry about you sharing a 1982 magazine article Greg but if you are in doubt give Tim P a ring, I'm sure he'd okay it.

30 years to finish a book. Sounds about right
Would be interested to read the article.

Trevor wrote:30 years to finish a book. Sounds about right
Would be interested to read the article.

Me too....... providing Mark and/or the mods give the nod.

Dave might well be right and perhaps nobody would mind, but I don’t feel comfortable putting anyone’s published article online without permission, regardless of how old the piece might be. It doesn’t seem fair on the author. Anyway, I won’t be phoning Tim Paisley up, but I have had an idea. I’ve scanned the full article now and I’ll be happy to PM it to any TFF members who would like to read it. Just let me know. That way it’s not being ‘published’ and effectively I will just be sharing it as though I were lending out my copy of the magazine.

Please be patient though, if there are a number of requests it may take a little while, as I’m not in front of my computer quite a lot of the time.

I’ve just re-read the full piece again for the first time in years (I only skimmed it the other day for the passages relevant to my post). I have to say some parts confused me a little. Tim made several references to other articles and suchlike that I’ve not read, so one or two bits I didn’t quite understand. Not that this really matters, it’s still an interesting read.

Greg, this forum is full of scans of old articles. Nobody cares about the reproduction of a 33 year old article from a defunct magazine.

Fascinating piece of information, that photo is great too, thanks for sharing

Love the vintage B&W photo - thanks for sharing

The black clapperboard makes me think that might be Yatesey's cottage near Hindhead in Surrey.
It was nicely placed for a number of Farnam Angling waters such as Frensham Ponds and Waggoners Wells and Donald Leney live nearby too.

It is in a valley called a 'vale' and I see it is named vale cottage....indeed there's a stream and several lakes along the vale too.

Nobby wrote:The black clapperboard makes me think that might be Yatesey's cottage near Hindhead in Surrey.
It was nicely placed for a number of Farnam Angling waters such as Frensham Ponds and Waggoners Wells and Donald Leney live nearby too.

It is in a valley called a 'vale' and I see it is named vale cottage....indeed there's a stream and several lakes along the vale too.

Thanks for clearing that up Nobby, I thought it was very aptly named "Ale" cottage.