HERRING TALES (PB)

Scots like to smoke or salt them. The Dutch love them raw. Swedes look on with relish as they open bulging, foul-smelling cans to find them curdling within. Through centuries, the herring has done much to shape human taste and history. Donald S. Murray has stitched together tales of the fish that was of central importance to the lives of our forebears, noting how it and those who fished for it were celebrated in the art, literature, craft, music and folklore of northern Europe.