Dexter Petley grew up in the 1960s and 70s, on the borders of Kent and Sussex. It was a time of eeking out a living mending cars, exterminating pests or hop picking. Boys were taught to fish by their fathers during the weekends, cast after cast plopping into willow-shaded water. While weekdays were spent at the secondary modern, where gardening and small-holding were still taught. Peopled by extraordinary characters, Love, Madness, Fishing is an unsentimental memoir of that time, told through Dexter Petley's discovery of fishing. Reminiscent of Laurie Lee, of Blood Knots by Luke Jennings and of Jonathan Meades' An Encyclopaedia of Myself, this is a book to be celebrated and remembered for years to come.
Dexter Petley is the author of five novels. He lives in France.