About me
I’m a freelance copywriter, urban fly-fisher and river restorationist, based on south London’s River Wandle.
As Chairman of the Wandle Trust, I’ve been deeply involved in starting to restore the river to its historic status as a world-famous chalkstream fishery. Since 2001 our little grassroots project has grown all the way up to full Rivers Trust status, and it’s even inspired the Wild Trout Trust to establish a national Trout in the Town programme with the Wandle as its flagship initiative.
I’ve been fortunate enough to be honoured for this voluntary work and environmental advocacy: first by being awarded the Wild Trout Trust’s Bernard Venables Award for services to wild trout conservation in 2008, and then with international recognition as a Sage Conservation Hero in 2009:
In April 2012, my first book Trout in Dirty Places: 50 rivers to fly-fish for trout and grayling in the UK’s town and city centres was published by Merlin Unwin Books.
Even more recently, I’ve been privileged to contribute a chapter to Chalk Stream Fly Fishing: A 21st Century Anthology on wise water use, invasive species, supranational law and many other factors affecting the future of these globally-precious ecosystems.
And while I do love urban rivers… really, I’m happy to fish more or less anywhere for anything with fins that will eat my fly.
As this blog will undoubtedly suggest…
