A Clear Water Stream - Critical reception

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Appendix: Mastigouche Photographic Essay

Critical reception:

The Irish Press, 24 May 1958:

stream rev 35Irish Press

The book received good publicity via the following radio and television programmes, with HW undertaking a promotional round that was perhaps rather less arduous that that expected of authors today:

stream rev 36aTV Bookman

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stream rev 37aTV Radio

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Eastern Daily Press ('E.A.E'), 5 June 1958 (This is Ted Ellis (1909–1986), a well-known East Anglian naturalist and 'character', who wrote a daily column for the EDP and now has a nature reserve at Surlingham Broad named in his memory. Ted knew HW's first wife and our President, Richard Williamson.):

stream rev 38EDP TedEllis

Liverpool Daily Post ('Brother Savage'), 5 June 1958, 'Books and Bookmen' column:

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stream rev 39aLiverpool Daily Post

Express & Echo (Exeter) (Martin Hedges), 6 June 1958:

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Oxford Times (A.P.D.), 6 June 1958:

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Daily Mail (Kenneth Allsop), 7 June 1958, 'Saturday Book Column' (A longish column, mainly reviewing a book about the ghost of Borley Rectory and ending with comparatively short piece on HW's book.):

stream rev 42Daily Mail

Glasgow Herald, 11 June 1958:

stream rev 43Glasgow Herald

Daily Telegraph Brian Harvey), 13 June 1958 (another multiple 'fishing books' review):

stream rev 44Daily Telegraph

Sphere (Vernon Fane), 14 June 1958:

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Southern Daily Echo (A.E.S), 14 June 1958:

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South Devon Journal, 18 June 1958:

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The Times, 19 June 1958:

stream rev 48The Times

Irish Times (G.R.H.), 19 June 1958:

stream rev 49Irish Times

Country Life (Howard Spring), 19 June 1958 (a long column mainly devoted to the D-Day book, but with good coverage for HW):

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Western Morning News, 20 June 1958:

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Sunday Times (Philip Day), 22 June 1958 (under the heading 'OTHER SELECTED NEW BOOKS'):

stream rev 52Sunday Times

The Times Literary Supplement, 27 June 1958:

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Eastern Daily Press, 27 June 1958:

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Mention in this EDP notice of Maurice Wiggin's Sunday Times review is odd: The Sunday Times review, given earlier, is by Philip Day. Faber placed an advertisement, source not known, which uses the same Wiggin quotation:

stream rev 55Faber advert

There is a Sunday Times review by Wiggin, but later, dated 21 December 1958. It is minimal, and does not contain the words quoted:

stream rev 56Wiggin

National and English Review, July 1958:

stream rev 57Nat English Review

Birmingham Post (C. V. Hancock), 4 July 1958 (a longish column reviewing 5 angling books, foremost being Bernard Venables, The Angler's Companion, (Allen & Unwin), 'a catholic and accomplished angler'):

stream rev 58Birmingham Post

The Field (R.E.), 17 July 1958 (another long column devoted to fishing books, 'A fine catch of fishing books'):

stream rev 59Field photo

stream rev 59aField

Illustrated London News (E. D. O'Brien), 21 June 1958 (in a column headed 'BOOKS OF THE DAY', with the sub-heading 'FROM HIGH SOCIETY TO THE WEST COUNTRY'):

stream rev 60Illus London News

Liverpool Daily Post (R.G.P.), 30 July 1958:

stream rev 61Liverpool Daily Post

Books and Bookmen (Jennifer Wayne), August 1958:

'TRIBES AND TROUT'

'Tribes' refers to Noone of the Ulu by Denis Holman – a book about the murder of Pat Noone and an attempt to persuade a Malayan tribe away from communism, the war against Japan, and much else. 'It reads already like a legend.' The review continues:

Meanwhile, Henry Williamson was standing on Humpy Bridge watching the trout. And watching much else besides – worms at night, dragging fallen petals into the earth; the gradual changes in the freezing of a quick stream. Yet, this too, is the story of a man of action. Who else would try to make a hatchery on the diningroom table? Who but the active fanatic would find a live fish coming out of the bathroom tap? Here is the integrity of craftsmanlike devotion, with its own technical and local vocabulary: shillets, leat, gaffs, frore mists, flume, spraint, penstocks. Yet here also is a paradox: he loves fish, but he fishes lovingly, with rapt attention to every delicate deathliness of hook, fly, rod and line. And if you are no Piscator, and are just going to cross this one off the list as “just another fishing book”, stop: you will miss not only some trout but some truth. A book like this one so full of country cunning may cast a flash of eternal sky at you, when you thought you were only looking over the bridge at water-snails.

Gloucestershire Echo (Lady Margaret Sackville), 14 August 1958 (headed, 'A Writer Close To Nature'):

stream rev 62Gloucestershire Echo