Illuminated By Water: Nature, Memory and the Delights of a Fishing Life (Paperback) - Malachy Tallack

Shortlisted for the Richard Jefferies Award 2022

Growing up in Shetland with its myriad lochs and burns, Malachy Tallack and his brother would roam the island in search of trout, and in so doing discovered a sense of freedom, of wonder - and an abiding passion.

But why is it that fishing - or the mere contemplation of catching a fish - can be so thrilling and so captivating?

Why is it that time spent beside water can be imprinted so sharply in memory?

Why is it that what seems a simple act - of casting a line, waiting and hoping - can leave so much room for mystery?

Here award-winning author and singer-songwriter Malachy Tallack tells the story of his own infatuation with fishing, a pastime that has brought him joy (and frustration) since early childhood. And in bringing together memoir, nature writing and reflections on culture and history, he explores why angling means so much to so many.

Beautifully written and hugely engaging, it is a book about attention, about nature, and that sense of wonder; it is about a way of engaging with the world, of reaching out - and feeling it reach back.

About the Author

Malachy Tallack is the award-winning author of three books. His first, Sixty Degree North (2015) was a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week and short-listed for the Saltire First Book Award. His second, The Un-Discovered Islands (2016), was Stanford Travel Writing Awards' Illustrated Book of the Year, while his debut novel, The Valley at the Centre of the World, was shortlisted for the Highland Book Prize and longlisted for the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize. He received a New Writers Award from the Scottish Book Trust in 2014, and the Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship in 2015. He is a founding editor of online magazine The Island Review and, as a singer-songwriter, he has released four albums and an EP, and performed across the UK. Malachy Tallack grew up in Shetland and currently lives in central Scotland.