Product Description

What has been the dish of kings, the subject of myths and the traveller of epic and mysterious journeys? The eel. Beginning life in the Sargasso Sea, the eel travels across the ocean, lives for twenty or so years, and then is driven by some instinct back across the ocean to spawn and die. And the next generation starts the story again. No one knows why the eels return, or how the orphaned elvers learn their way back. One man discovered, after many adventures, the breeding ground of all eels -- and he is the hero of this book. Eels were being caught and consumed 5000 years before the birth of Christ -- Aristotle and Pliny wrote about them; Romans regarded them as a peerless delicacy; Egyptians accorded them semi-sacred status; English kings died of overeating them. There are many strange practices among eel fishers all over the world, and many great fortunes based upon the eel harvest. The Book of Eels, a combination of social comment, biography and natural history, is also a fascinating and witty account of Tom Fort's obsession with the eel, his journeying to discover the eel in all its habitats, and the people he meets in his pursuit.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #179686 in Books
• Published on: 2003-08-18
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Science journalist Oliver Morton will love The Book of Eels. In an Amazon.co.uk interview, Morton, who had just written a book about Mapping Mars, said that bits of the world which fascinated him most were the ones which science could describe brilliantly, but could not begin to explain. That would seem to describe eels quite nicely.

Foods go in and out of fashion. The skills of the field and the kitchen develop slowly, refined bit by bit by passing generations--then vanish, in the blink of an eye. Tom Fort's uncategorisable book pays homage to the humble and delicious eel. It is by turns charming, long-winded, and unexpectedly profound. Sunday fishermen will lap up its eel-catching lore, its stirring first-person accounts, and its eccentric historical anecdotes. Armchair naturalists will retire exhausted but happy from Fort's account of the eel's extraordinary life cycle (involving, among other things, an epic circumnavigation of the world). Of course, books of this sort usually end in tears. If your subject is the relationship people have with the natural world, you most often end up having to mourn the affair's recent passing--eradicated by one modern despoliation or another. Fort's book is no exception. Fort feels sure that the eel will survive man. But he wonders whether men will survive in a world where so much knowledge, lore and practice is being sacrificed in the name of industry. Fort believes passionately in craft, and in the kind of knowledge you can gain through the practice of craft. He contrasts this with the way science works, and is both sympathetic and very funny about science's limitations when it comes to answering questions about creatures as elusive and peculiar as his beloved eels. There are, Fort argues, many different kinds of knowledge. The scientific knowledge that informs industry is fine as far as it goes. But it's not enough to do justice to this remarkable creature.--Simon Ings

Review
'This is a captivating study!Tom Fort is incapable of writing a dull sentence.' Financial Times 'A fascinating, beautifully written and deeply peculiar book.' New Scientist 'In this wonderful book, Tom Fort elevates Anguilla anguilla from the lowly to the exalted!The Book of Eels is a delightful surprise; Fort does wonders with his esoteric and fascinating subject.' The Times 'What a joy, a whole book on eels. It's a very good book too, and a very English book!I suppose it is inevitable that somone will call this book 'enchanting'. Take no notice. Buy it anyway. Give it to someone you like or, for even more fun, to someone you don't.' Spectator 'Tom Fort is the Alan Bennett of the angling scene.' Literary Review 'The strength of Fort's book arises from the fact that he's a fisherman, and writes like one. He approaches the eel as a mystery and loves the places it is found.' Guardian 'A fascinating, beautifully written and deeply peculiar book. It is more than a scientific detective story, it is a rich concoction of different genres, part social history and part autobiography, seasoned with culinary tips. But this book is also a lament for a vanishing way of life.' New Scientist 'In this wonderful book, Tom Fort elevates Anguilla anguilla from the lowly to the exalted, and along the way gives us a lot to think about. Fort has written a celebration of eel-lore, and you can ignore this book only if you are not interested in a multitude of insights about the way the natural world works. The Book of Eels is a delightful surprise; Fort does wonders with his esoteric and fascinating subject.' Times 'A charming examination of the genus anguilla. Fort's enthusiasm for the mysterious eel is infectious. This is a cut above the staple non-fiction fare.' Scotland on Sunday 'What a joy, a whole book on eels. It's a very good book too, and a very English book!What is really tremendous is that it is a book in the English amateur tradition. The author knows his stuff but he is no scientist. He is an amateur. He is one of us. Because he is an amateur he can write a book that defies the normal professional and disciplinary boundaries, a book that leaves out the boring bits. I suppose it is inevitable that someone will call this book 'enchanting'. Take no notice. Buy it anyway. Give it to someone you like or, for even more fun, to someone you don't.' Spectator 'After Mark Kurlansky's elegant and erudite Cod, there swims hot on the fins, the even more elegant and erudite Book of Eels. Readers will not fail to be awestruck!It should certainly be read by all those who are fascinated by the life we find underwater.' Daily Mail 'A delightful book!It is a measure of Fort's talents that by the end of this slim volume he leaves the general reader with an unexpected store of sympathy -- admiration even -- for the slimy wriggler.' Sunday Telegraph 'This is a fantastic and fascinating tale, told with a great sense of atmosphere, and I for one did not expect to be shedding a surreptitious tear at the telling of the eels' Sargasso Sea odyssey. Unbelievably poignant.' The Field 'A celebration of the extraordinary natural history of Anguilla anguilla, the European eel, along with the richly sinuous weave of the eel's relationship to man (not, perhaps, woman, unless the eel is offered filleted and utterly inert)!Tom Fort's cameos of their shadowy, weedy water-world are beautifully written and often moving.' Irish Times 'Tom Fort has devoted years of research to his subject and the result -- as with all his writings -- is both impressive and entertaining!the Fortian persona!makes him the Alan Bennett of the angling scene.' Literary Review 'Has all the elements of a Hollywood blockbuster, and then some!the story that Tom Fort tells demands the broad canvas of the big screen!it's got everything going for it: sex, exotic locations, a heartwarming saga of family values!The Latin name of this saline cheese straw is anguilla anguilla: so good they named it twice!It would be a pity if the story of the eel became the one that got away.' Observer 'This is a captivating study!Tom Fort is incapable of writing a dull sentence.' Financial Times 'Tom Fort tells the story of the eel in such a way that we cannot fail to share his passion!what an astounding story it is!' The Tablet

About the Author
Tom Fort, a former editor at the BBC, is the fishing correspondent for the Financial Times. He lives in Berkshire with his wife and children.

Customer Reviews

new millennium classic
I had no interest in eels, this book came my way, and I was entranced. Not just by the subject, fascinating and curiously moving though that turned out to be, but also by the clarity and beauty of Tom Fort's writing, and the atmospheres, characters, senses of place that he evokes. To my mind, this is the first classic of 21st century nature writing in English. Fiennes, Deakin, Cocker, Mabey, Macfarlane et al may be garnering all the plaudits, but their work is neither as knowledgeable nor as original nor anything like as good as this extraordinary little masterpiece of intimate long knowledge, adventurous enquiry and attentive observation.

It is also - unlike the work of some of those other writers - untainted by the appropriated subjects and tortured language of the creative-writing-school industry, which so bedevils British publishing these days. Its style is as pure and clear and easy as it is beautiful. It celebrates mysteries, the author's wonder at the witnessing of which becomes ours. It explains social and scientific histories with a bright eye and a sure feel for the small points which bring stories to life. Most importantly, through its passion for subject A Book of Eels manages to give, in particular and harrowing detail, the most vivid image of the effect of climate change and our blind squandering of planetary resources that I've ever read. It's a masterwork. Read it, whether or not you have any interest in eels. I'll guarantee they'll haunt your conscience and your consciousness afterwards. It's made me want to get hold of everything else Tom Fort's written.

Superb book
This book captures the unique nature of the eel from not only a scientific point of view but also on a personal level.
From the capture or elvers, to the breeeding cycle of the eel to the conservation this book covers all aspects of the eels history.
An fascinating book even if you have no interest in eels. Highly recommended.