Year of the Raven

About the Book

On the surface, Year of the Raven is a memoir of a year spent flyfishing on spring creek in the Alberta Foothills. Of course, any flyfisherman knows that there’s more going on below the surface than on it.

It may be easier to describe Year of the Raven by saying what it is not. It is most emphatically not a ‘how to’ book. If anything, it may tell aspiring anglers ‘how not to!’ Nor is it part of the traditional angling literary genre, since it mixes equal parts cynicism with idyllic naturalism. At one level, it can be thought of as a warts-and-all diary of the difficult, frustrating pursuit of flyfishing knowledge.

Although much of the book is non-fiction - the setting is real, and most of the angling sequences are faithfully reported - it was written as a ‘nonfiction novel.’ The memories dredged up in the stream inform the fishing sequences, and the fishing sequences inform the memories. On reader coined the term ‘fly fiction’ to describe it. I like that description as well as any.

It is a book for anglers, who may read an account of fishing the way they actually do it, for the first time. And for anyone who has, or occasionally needs, hope.

In the five years that have elapsed since leaving the Raven, I actually haven’t returned to it, or any other stream. It was that intense. Though there is a little stream, River Philip, that I must cross if make a shopping trip into Halifax. Sometime soon, I think, I’ll wet a line there.

Writers write for readers; thanks for your interest, Mark Gardiner. Sackville, NB, Canada, July 2000.

About the Author

Prior to writing Year of the Raven, Mark Gardiner spent 15 years flyfishing along the east slope of the Rocky Mountains. He also races, and writes about motorcycles (www.bikewriter.com) and is an advertising agency creative director (www.markegardiner.com) He is the author of Classic Motorcycles, and several hundred television commercials. He is currently researching a book about motorcycle racing on the Isle of Man. He can be reached via e-mail at either mark@bikewriter.com, or mark@markegardiner.com. He would, however, be the last person you’d turn to for fishing advice.