Blood Knots: A Memoir of Fathers, Friendship, and Fishing

Though the author's writing is very readable and in some instances quite enjoyable when he describes the countryside of Great Britain and how he came to learn his fly fishing in these waters, I found myself wandering as I read the book. How this young boy came to become a fly fisherman and the fishing experiences he enjoyed are more of a backdrop for those other experiences in personal relationship, family ties and lessons learned through these experiences. The depth of this book into these aspects of growing up and what one learns certain lesson in life based on personal experiences and unforgettable milestones are something the reader may understand and interpret quite readily or not. I could not find a comfortable pace in reading this book though it may be my perceptions and thoughts to which other readers may not find.

This book provides a history of the author's experiences with fishing, beginning with bait fishing--then progressing to fly fishing when he is a teenager. It also has sections about his relationship with his father and his father's experiences during WWII, along with his personal experiences and friendships when he went to boarding school growing up in England. The author is also an ardent pike fisherman. But this book if you like books that include both fishing and non-fishing experiences.I bought this book because it was recommended by Tom Brokaw in a WSJ article.

To call this an angling book is like calling Moby-Dick (and I am not placing "Blood Knots" on *that* pedestal) a whaling book. Any angler will enjoy the author's descriptions and insights into fishing. On that level alone, it is in thin company, since there are way too many overwritten and trite fishing books that try to be Meaningful as well.No reason to repeat the informative reviews that others have posted here, except to emphasize that non-anglers will enjoy the book too, even though some choice portions will blow right past them.

Fishers are a different breed who find failure with pouring rain and stubborn prey soul satisfying. Blood Knots captures this strange form of insanity with engaging stories and that special feeling when one engages these wonderful wild creatures lurking often just out of sight or in our imagination only. A book to put your feet up and share the authors experiences as if you were there.

Flyfishing in England is different, historical and combined with that British sense of duty & humor. This is a super example of precisely that combination. I feel inspired to get out with my rod and fly box o fe again!

This is a brilliant memoir by Luke Jennings. It is a story about life, friendships, war, and even some fishing. It is beautifully written and is the kind of book you want to keep even after you've read it; it bears reading more than once. It is one of the best books I've read in the past several years.

To enjoy this lovely book.From unpromising rubbish filled London drains to famous chalk streams Luke Jennings paints such a vivid picture you can smell the water, and feel the atmosphere in which he was brought up and the friends family and mentors who influence him. Moving and memorable.

A one-off of "River" but a good read.

Buy this book! Once in every generation a work of undeniable genius appears in England: this is it."Blood Knots" by Luke Jennings was originally published in 2010, to very complimentary reviews. It has subsequently been reprinted as a paperback and a new American hardback edition has now issued. I have obtained a copy. This may be the most eloquent testimony that I can give: I did so because my original copy, a paperback, had begun to fall to bits. I had carried it around in my briefcase and, if waiting to see the doctor, riding on the Underground, or otherwise forced to be inactive for a while, I would open it and read it. It is one of those rare books that you can open randomly at any page and find something enjoyable. The American edition has the additional advantage of an excellent introduction by Thomas McGuane, author of "The Longest Silence." My only criticism of the introduction is that McGuane refers to Jennings' mentor, Robert Nairac, as an SAS officer; he was in fact from the Grenadier Guards.Luke Jennings is a renaissance man. In addition to being a serious angler and a brilliant writer on angling, he has written several novels and is the dance critic of the Observer newspaper. An apparently devout Catholic, although he deplored the modernising changes that emerged from Vatican II, he was educated at Ampleforth Abbey, the Benedictine monastery in Yorkshire whose school, Ampleforth College, is regarded as "the Catholic Eton".As a child in the 1960s, Jennings was fascinated by the streams and lakes near his home. His father, a courageous cavalry officer badly burned in a tank battle in 1944, was not a fisherman and could not have angled, given the horrific injuries that his hands had sustained. He did however buy his son his first rod, setting him on a path that would lead to many waterways, from chalk trout streams in Southern England to dangerous hidden canals in north London where great pike lurk among the abandoned trolleys and other rubbish, and muggers and prostitutes lurk among the canal-side undergrowth. Jennings' father, who comes across as modest, truthful, deeply moral and quietly heroic, was his first mentor and helped to set his moral compass, as well as gradually introducing him to country pursuits. Other Fathers, the monks of Ampleforth, also helped: quietly preparing boys not for material success in life, but for right living and holy dying.At the age of twelve Jennings had the luck to encounter for the first time Robert Nairac, then aged nineteen, who had just left Ampleforth and was spending a gap year as an Assistant Master teaching History at Jennings' prep school before going to Oxford to read Mediaeval and Military History. After Oxford he joined the Army. He and Jennings were destined to be friends for just nine years. Nairac proved to be an inspirational teacher, whose tuition extended beyond the classroom to introducing his protégé to serious angling, including dry-fly fishing; shooting and falconry. So began an enlightening, but often dark-shadowed journey, of discovery. It would lead to bright streams and wild country, but would end with his mentor's abduction, torture and murder by the IRA in 1977.Robert Nairac was as great a moral influence as Jennings' father. He was not a typical 60s teenager. He was an old-fashioned and devout Catholic or almost mediaeval intensity, as well as a fanatical devotee of field sports; the two, religion and sports, being mystically - and sometimes bloodily - entwined in Nairac's scheme of things. Jennings sums up Nairac's lesson far more eloquently than I could: "I understand now why Robert was absolutist in his method, and why he spoke of honour and dry fly in the same sentence. Because the rules we impose on ourselves are everything - especially in the face of nature which, for all its outward poetry, is a slaughterhouse. It's not a question of wilfully making things harder, but of a purity of approach without which success has no meaning. And this, ultimately, was his lesson: that the fiercest joy is to be a spectator of your own conduct and find no cause for complaint." How many of us are in that happy position? It seems that Nairac was.The book has an elegiac quality throughout. So many of the characters have died, often quite young. Another of Jennings' angling friends (pike angling in this case) was Rene Berg, the musician, vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter. He too died young in 2003. The cause of death was not an overdose but a culmination of depression and years of hard living and drinking taking their toll."Blood Knots" is a great book on angling but, like Izaak Walton's The Compleat Angler, it can be read and enjoyed as literature by non-anglers. I have done very little fishing but finished the book at two sittings. It is un-put-downable. Two people to whom I gave copies - one a keen angler, the other a non-angler - found it equally irresistible. Part of the pleasure of reading it is the concisely elegant prose, which is worthy of a seventeenth-century writer. I do not know Jennings but suspect that he is very familiar with the writings of Sir Thomas Browne, Robert Burton and George Herbert. If you are only browsing the book, read Chapter 17, the shortest chapter, devoted to Claude Lorrain's painting Landscape with the Nymph Egeria in the Capodimonte Museum in Naples (and yes; it is relevant to the theme). `Past, present and future are one'.

This is an engagingly pleasant and rambling fishing memoir, which begins with a telling and edgy sketch of angling in a dingy London canal. The central power of Jennings' book is his evocation of meeting and fly fishing with the dashing young Robert Nairac, who was later murdered by the IRA. With a deft touch, Jennings hints at how his early hero-worship of Nairac was tempered by his later realization that the glamorous but possibly reactionary Nairac had a strong reckless streak (which turned out to be fatal). There are amusing reminiscences of Avisford prep school (curiously, Jennings does not say that his father was the headmaster) and some truly hilarious chapters on Ampleforth College. Jennings's account of his father's bravery and burning in World war Two is affecting, though the part which his mother played in his life (surely not insignificant?) is not mentioned.Jennings characterises fishing as connecting with nature, which makes sense. His descriptions of particular fishing episodes are marvellously evocative. There is too much technical detail on fishing tackle for me (which others may find interesting), but the relaxed style is a pleasure to read.In some ways, this book was surprisingly (though lightly) nostalgic and concerned with what it means to be English, in a suitably under-stated and non-analytical way - and all the more powerful for that. A curious aspect - again, quite English - is that Jennings seems to be non-religious and yet he regrets the modernising impact which Vatican II had on Catholicism.

I came across this book when I was looking for books on Capt Robert Nairac and after reading all the postive reveiws I thought I would give this a try - and I am so very glad I did.On the surface this book is about fishing, but this beautiful work is so much more than this, it is about friendship and family relationships and is a fantastic read. The book evokes a lot of emotions, it made me laugh out loud as well as making me feel wistful and sometimes sad. The author writes in such a beautiful way that even the passages about fishing were engaging, which is impressive as I have never been interested in fishing.I finished this book in three days, and it was truly a joy to read. One of the other reviewers made reference to the fact this is one of the most endearing books they have read and I thoroughly agree. The joy of reading this book has stayed with me and it is one of those books I can imagine rereading many times in the years to come. I cannot recommend this wonderful book enough, please give it a try I am sure you will not be disappointed.

My wife suggested to me that I read this book as she had heard it on Radio 4's book of the week.I have not fished since my teenage years but she thought that it would appeal to me as it was about the countryside and growing up in the 50's and 60's as I had.What a wonderfully evocative book.I was sent reeling back to my childhood and happy halycon days in the meadows near my home.I can quite honestly say that I have never enjoyed a book as much as this one.The Robert Nairac interest is fascinating and keeps cropping up during the book and keeps you transfixed to every page.I suggest that every male of a certain age reads this to put some perspective into life.A truly worthwhile read.

As far from Killing Eve as it is possible to get. Gentle reading, tales of the riverbank, a father - son relationship and being out in nature. Bought it for a fishing friend in reminiscence of peaceful afternoons spent watching him cast a line for trout.