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WILLIAM CAINE

William Caine was one of the most versatile Bohemians of his time; a clever novelist, a flamboyant genius, a gifted, sentimental writer. He had a very wide audience for his work, though he was better known for his magazine stories than his books. He loved fishing, being an angler of many wiles and he loved to amuse people, above all give them pleasant surprises. It may be said he spent most of his life inventing pleasant surprises for his readers.

He was also great friends with H. T. Sheringham and they spent many hours sharing heroic tales of trout and their frantic efforts to catch them. Caine wrote angling articles for many publications and his book Fish, Fishing and Fishermen (1927) was a collection of his published articles from The Field, Punch, The Journal of the Flyfishers’ Club, The Morning Post, The Daily Chronicle, The Evening Standard, Macmillan’s Magazine and the Badminton Magazine.

Caine was also known as an artist and illustrator, although he never studied art unless it was through the eyes of his friend, H. M. Bateman, with whom he was greatly associated. Gluttons’ Mirror was his first volume of drawings, a collection of burlesques, and their originals were drawn mostly on the backs of menu cards whilst awaiting the tardy service of Parisian dinners.


Books by William Caine include:

An Angler at Large 1911 (now available from the Medlar Press)
Gluttons Mirror 1926
Fish, Fishing and Fishermen 1927
Mendoza and a Little Lady 1921
The Strangeness of Noel Carton 1921
Lady Sheba's Last Stunt 1925
The Author of Trixie 1924