Kids want edge, can't-die danger and anarchy. Years ago I thought of reworking my own childhood into a book - not merely scrumping and mud- and (near lethal) brick-fights and having to bow and scrape to various local worthies on occasion then get your own back on them and never, ever, in my own case, get caught, but with chapters like "Bread For Trout", "Winding Up the F-ing and Blinding Carp Anglers and Letting Their Eff-Off 4-Wheeler Tyres and Bivvies Down", "Fly Fishing Might Be For Life But Will Certainly Be Death of You", "Who Is That Ponce on the Telly?", "Pooed My Pants Whilst Perch Fishing"...
Entertained a few kids, boys and girls, with my Lewis Carroll Goes Fishing on Mescaline stories over the past decade or so, but knew that Serious Anglers and Publishers would highly disapprove and probably take a contract out on me. And there lies the problem - we have become disapproving old farts ("Don't do that ... don't fish 'ere ... 'ave you got a ticket ... are you a Member...?), whilst kids as always just want to have fun - stone the ruddy lake or river when the fish aren't biting (five minutes) or when they get bored (two to three). The people who get serious about it and take it up big-time almost always are and were trainspotters, little people just like big old us, yet the trade and the media tell us we have to have more and more these days (Subtext: Please keep us in business) - hence my "Bread For Test Trout".
