Water Colours - reviews
Water Colours: Further ramblings of an artist-angler By Maurice J. Pledger
High quality paperback with flaps. £19.95 Cloth-bound edition limited to 250 signed and numbered copies. £50.00 De luxe leather-bound edition limited to only 35 signed and numbered copies. £250.00
"Good writing and divine illustrations.
It's that time of year again when I am on the lookout for birthday presents or stocking fillers for one or two of my angling colleagues. Fortunately, most are easy to please - a few home-tied variants of well-known patterns (any resemblance to the original purely coincidental) or little assortments of the latest gizmos and gadgets. For the more discerning, the task is that bit harder and that is why I am eternally grateful that Coch-y-Bonddu Books have, in their infinite, wisdom published Water Colours - the equally well written and excellently illustrated follow-up to Maurice J Pledger's While My Float's Still Cocked. The subtitle, Further ramblings of an artist-angler, could not be further from the truth. Pledger is both a remarkably gifted author and artist - I leave it to those who know him better to comment on his angling capabilities - whose prose is clear, concise and easy to read, and whose illustrations are simply divine. Like all good writers, Pledger evokes a roller-coaster of emotions, from laughing out loud with him at the tale of the boy with the hook in his finger and the tricks played on a fishing mate to the poignant final farewell to his father and his uncle. But, more than anything, Pledger rekindles a love for, and an interest in, those things we anglers should hold dear to our hearts - the countryside and all things in it, from fish and birds to flora. He does this not only through his brilliantly reconstructed anecdotes, but also through the mastery of colour, depth and perception of his wildlife artwork, which, in my view, rates among the best I have seen for some time. And the copy of the Water Colours I was going to give to my old school friend ... it is on my book shelf along with While My Float's Still Cocked. Perhaps one of these days I'll be lucky enough to add a third volume alongside them. One can but hope." (fishingforanglers.com)."I doubt any of us display less vanity than this author. Mole, as his friends call him, illustrates interactive children’s books and more than ten million copies have been sold worldwide. His ornithological studies have sold at Sotheby’s, yet when I cheekily asked if I might use some of his fish images on my latest DVD inlays and to break up different film sequences he not only talked his agent into letting me use them at no cost, he then wrote to me saying he was humbled to be given such an opportunity. Crikey, if anyone should be humbled it was me. Of course, I jumped at a chance to repay the favour when he asked me to write an introduction for Water Colours. It was an honour and I knew it would be a cracker if his previous book, While My Float’s Still Cocked was anything to go by.
I wasn't to be disappointed. Water Colours is a whimsical book. A collection of tales and Boy’s Own adventures, the polar extreme of obsession. It’s a lovely book, one to escape into on a cold winter’s evening. Not surprisingly it’s liberally illustrated with Mole’s sketches and paintings throughout." (Bob Roberts, who contributed the foreword to the book)."The book covers many different emotions from sadness to laughter and everything else in between. He discusses his friendships, love of the countryside and many other subjects right the way through to his last goodbye to his father and uncle. Like it says in the subtitle of the book it is about the ramblings of an artist-angler and much more in my opinion. I don't think you will be disappointed with this book and can highly recommend it for your bookshelf and collection." (Mark Sarul, TraditionalFisherman.com).
"As usual this book shop gives great service I can recommend the author to anyone who enjoys fishing and art." (Keith Holloway, Amazon review, 10th of January 2014).
