JOHN ASTON
John Aston has fished since he was five years old, and he has written about his angling passion since his twenties. His first book, A Dream of Jewelled Fishes, was published in 2007 and was well reviewed, and not only by the specialist press - the book appealed to a wide audience. Now in his late fifties, the author grew up in the industrial West Riding of Yorkshire in the small mining village of Allerton Bywater. After reading law at the University of Leeds he worked for some years in Lincolnshire before moving to North Yorkshire which has been his home for over thirty years. John lives in a small hamlet on the North York Moors with his wife Joanne, and is within easy reach of the wild trout fishing which has become his first love. But he is absolutely not a purist - because John is just as happy fishing for winter chub or pike on the river Swale as he is when stalking a big trout in a small stream. After working as a senior lawyer for North Yorkshire County Council since the 80s, John took early retirement in 2012 to concentrate on fishing (and writing about fishing) and his other interests which include motor sport and music. John has found that on the rare occasions when Joni Mitchell cannot provide the answer Neil Young can always help him out.
'Like most people, my default setting is the successful imposter and the only time I really slip the mask is when I fish; in my working life people think that if I sound like a lawyer that's what I must be - and how very wrong they are. Because the reality is that I am a fisherman who hit middle age and decided to write a fishing autobiography. I am no fishing maestro - at best I'm a competent river fly fisherman, a so-so chub fisherman and a really rather ropey everything else.'
Extract taken from The Glorious Uncertainty, published in 2012.
Some reviews of John's first book, A Dream of Jewelled Fishes:
'[John] uses words as a painter uses a palette or a pianist a keyboard' - Wild Trout Trust Magazine
' . . . a wonderful fishing autobiography' - Total Fly Fisher
'A wonderfully evocative book' - Yorkshire Life
John Aston has fished since he was five years old, and he has written about his angling passion since his twenties. His first book, A Dream of Jewelled Fishes, was published in 2007 and was well reviewed, and not only by the specialist press - the book appealed to a wide audience. Now in his late fifties, the author grew up in the industrial West Riding of Yorkshire in the small mining village of Allerton Bywater. After reading law at the University of Leeds he worked for some years in Lincolnshire before moving to North Yorkshire which has been his home for over thirty years. John lives in a small hamlet on the North York Moors with his wife Joanne, and is within easy reach of the wild trout fishing which has become his first love. But he is absolutely not a purist - because John is just as happy fishing for winter chub or pike on the river Swale as he is when stalking a big trout in a small stream. After working as a senior lawyer for North Yorkshire County Council since the 80s, John took early retirement in 2012 to concentrate on fishing (and writing about fishing) and his other interests which include motor sport and music. John has found that on the rare occasions when Joni Mitchell cannot provide the answer Neil Young can always help him out.
'Like most people, my default setting is the successful imposter and the only time I really slip the mask is when I fish; in my working life people think that if I sound like a lawyer that's what I must be - and how very wrong they are. Because the reality is that I am a fisherman who hit middle age and decided to write a fishing autobiography. I am no fishing maestro - at best I'm a competent river fly fisherman, a so-so chub fisherman and a really rather ropey everything else.'
Extract taken from The Glorious Uncertainty, published in 2012.
Some reviews of John's first book, A Dream of Jewelled Fishes:
'[John] uses words as a painter uses a palette or a pianist a keyboard' - Wild Trout Trust Magazine
' . . . a wonderful fishing autobiography' - Total Fly Fisher
'A wonderfully evocative book' - Yorkshire Life