Books by Chris Yates

The legendary fisherman''s record of a magical summer spent on the banks

Chris Yates, one of Britain's most insightful and lyrical writers, raises his gaze from his beloved rivers and ponds and takes us on a mesmerizing tour of the British countryside."e;Last November, the sudden appearance of a hundred wintering ravens in a wood in Cranborne Chase, where I have lived for twenty-five years without seeing more than a few solitary specimens, reminded me that there is always something ready to flame up again in the landscape, just when it seemed the fire had gone out."e;In Nightwalk we accompany Chris Yates on the most magical of journeys into the very heart of the British countryside. His acute observation of the natural world and ability to transcend it exquisitely sets Chris apart from his contemporaries.Time slows down for a deeper intimacy with nature, and through Chris's writing we hear every rustle of a leaf, every call of a bird. He widens the power of our imagination, heightening our senses and revealing beauty in the smallest details.

"The Secret Carp is a fishing book with a difference. As The Independent comments, it is one of the few books that manages to capture the real joy of fishing in such a way that even a non-angler could be seduced. It tells the true story of the events of a single day and night beside an English carp lake in high summer. When he stumbled upon a long-neglected, overgrown lake holding some monster carp, Chris Yates knew that he had discovered the kind of place about which every carp angler dreams. He set about trying to catch the huge, elusive inhabitants with rod and line. It was a quest that was to reveal many insights into the secretive behaviour of this king of freshwater fish and bring him thrillingly into contact with his quarry. Waiting, watching and stalking, quite undeterred by the damp sleeping bag and the cold. Yates' enthralling story whispers adventure and promise. And it is punctuated by moments of great drama as monster fish disturb the tranquil world of the angler. Fishermen of all persuasions will enjoy this masterful angling chronicle."