SUMMER CREW: A TALE OF SALMON FISHING ON SPEYSIDE

The Summer Crew is a gently comic novel about Scottish rural life set in the vein of Para Handy or Compton MacKenzie, but set in the late 1980s based around salmon netting at the mouth of the River Spey. Summer Crews were a mix of permanent employees, students and part time workers, hired to fish the summer grilse run for the months of June, July and August and the novel follows the progress of the new recruits as they struggle to learn the ropes and integrate with the older, more experienced crew. With evocative b/w line illustrations by the author, the tale covers the local agricultural show, the village fete, a grouse shoot and the wider community.