Twenty-two in '22: Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing

I've set myself modest reading targets in each of the last three years and failed every time (I managed 17 books in '19, 11 in '20 and 18 in '21), so I'm determined to read twenty two books in 2022. I'll review them all here.

2/22: Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing by Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse

The blurb: Two comedy greats talk life, friendship and the joys of fishing...

Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse have been friends for 30 years, but when life intervened, what was once a joyous and spontaneous friendship dwindled to the odd phone call or occasional catch up. Then, Glory Be! They were both diagnosed with heart disease and realised that time is short. They'd better spend it fishing...

So they dusted off their kits, chucked on their waders and ventured into the achingly beautiful British countryside to fish, rediscover the joys of their friendship and ruminate on some of life's most profound questions, such as: How did we get so old? Where are all the fish? What are your favourite pocket meats? What should we do if we find a corpse?

Following the success of the BBC's Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing series, this wonderful book by two lifelong friends is a love letter to the joys of angling, the thrill of the catch and the virtue of having a right daft laff with your mates. On the fish, the equipment, the food, and the locations, Gone Fishing is the perfect book for fans of Bob Mortimer, Paul Whitehouse and for anyone who wants to read a brilliantly written and endlessly funny joint memoir on life, friendship and joys of fishing.

The review: I bought The Man Of Cheese a copy of Bob Mortimer's wildly popular autobiography And Away for Christmas; so popular is it, in fact, that my gift was the third copy TMOC received over the festive period. I've since remedied that fail with a far better present, but what I should really have bought, if I'd wanted to be a bit more original, is this. For whilst Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing does have an autobiographical element, and does tie in nicely with the comfort-viewing TV series that shares its name, it's principally a book about fishing, and the joys thereof. Oh, and being with your mate too, but I'll come on to that.

There's a very clear split in the book regarding who has written each piece, and clearly Paul does most of the heavy lifting when it comes to writing about fishing, its history, techniques, and types of fish. Now I am not an angler - it's thirty years or more since I last sat at the riverside with The Man Of Cheese and hooked roach after roach out of the excellently named River Wantsum. But that in no way diminished my enjoyment of this book. As Bob is quick to point out, a day fishing is about more than the fish, it's about being outdoors with your mate, enjoying the peace and beauty of a rural setting, talking nonsense (or, perhaps, not talking at all), maybe retiring to a nice pub afterwards... sounds good, doesn't it? And that's a strength of this book - it enthuses about the attendant joys of angling so much that it would make anyone fancy a go.

If Paul carries the fishing aspect of the book, Bob carries the humour - that's not to say Paul's sections aren't funny, because they are, but they're also weighted towards the fishing. Bob doesn't have Paul's fishing experience, so compensates with humour. I particularly enjoyed his comedy names for the dishes he describes in his section on heart-healthy riverside cooking options (tuna Melanie with trapped potatoes, anyone? Or Boots McFoolish breakfast porridge?)

The thing is, this isn't a life-changing book. It isn't going to dazzle you with its prose, nor - for all its humour - is it a comedy classic. A totally objective review would probably be for me to award it four out of the possible six stars, describe it as "serviceable" or some other faint praise and summarise it as a satisfactory commercial exercise, cashing in on the success of the TV show. All of those things are true. But it's more than that, of course. Yes, it's a love letter to fishing and an outdoor life, and that's a big part of the appeal. But it's even more than that too. Mostly, for this reader at least, Gone Fishing is the anatomy of a friendship between two men, one that started in youth and has matured in middle age. At a time when what it is to be a man is so ill-defined, lambasted or pilloried, it is truly rewarding to see a genuine, heartfelt and lasting male friendship served up on paper, for us all to enjoy. And for that, it is more than the sum of its parts, and warrants an extra star.

The bottom line: come for the fishing, stay for the friendship - a life-affirming read.

Since everything online is rated these days: ★★★★★☆