Ms Chetwode-Talbot, why on earth does your client want to do this in the first place? It's- it's plainly ridiculous. Yemeni tribesmen waiting for the evening rise by the side of a wadi with fishing rods in their hands. Al Qaeda isn't thrown in very convincingly, either, and it's hard to believe that a figure as ridiculous as Maxwell could last so long as a PM-aide.

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday | Goodreads

His mish-mash of formats was, I believe, intended to liven up the story somewhat, and keep the reader interested by constantly changing the narrative voice. A good plan in theory, but with 2 major flaws: Sheikh Mohammed has a vision, Vision 2020, he wants to take salmon fishing from the Highlands in Scotland, to his country, the Yemen. This is the story of Dr Alfred Jones, a fisheries scientist - for whom diary-notable events include the acquisition of a new electric toothbrush and getting his article on caddis fly larvae published in 'Trout and Salmon' - who finds himself reluctantly involved in a project to bring salmon fishing to the Highlands of the Yemen - a project that will change his life, and the course of British political history for ever. A fascinating tale of dreams and how they can sometimes consume us but most often will set us free, if only we let them! But the improbability is not as damaging to the novel as Torday's narrative technique is. (...) Torday grasps the workings of bureaucracies better than he does those of the media. (...) Torday's novel is too staid." - Nicholas Clee, Times Literary SupplementJust as Torday uses so many different forms in presenting the story -- from diary entries to a TV script -- so too he seems uncertain of what he means the book to be. I know it firsthand. I was part of a British consulting company in Abu Dhabi for ten long years, basking in the oil glow. In my time, I have seen a lot of projects mushrooming only to go into the cold storage after the conceptual and design stage are completed, on the basis of economic viability. But hey, no one was complaining, as it was keeping us in the clover.

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday | Goodreads Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday | Goodreads

a b Langdon, Julia (19 December 2013). "Paul Torday obituary". The Guardian. London . Retrieved 23 December 2014. Hornaday found Salmon Fishing in the Yemen a "surprisingly lush, endearing little film, in which a swelling sense of romanticism thoroughly banishes even the most far-fetched improbabilities." [18] An unassuming scientist takes an unbelievable adventure in the Middle East in this “extraordinary” novel—the inspiration for the major motion picture starring Ewan McGregor ( The Guardian).Walsh, John (9 February 2007). "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, by Paul Torday". The Independent. London . Retrieved 23 December 2014. To write a novel lampooning the looking-glass world of Blairite government must have given Torday as much gruesome fun as he gives his readers. But to take the victims of his satire and make them players in a parable about the mystery of belief and its transforming power - this was in itself an act of faith. Salmon Fishing is extraordinary indeed, and a triumph. As an arabist and resident of Yemen, my few criticisms are too pedantic to mention. Except, perhaps, one: khat (or qat) is not a narcotic but a stimulant. I chew it every day, and read the book on it in two vertiginous goes. Not that I needed the qat; the story is stimulant enough. a b "Shooting commences on Salmon Fishing in the Yemen". BBC Press Office. 6 August 2010 . Retrieved 2 December 2012. His second novel, The Irresistible Inheritance of Wilberforce (titled Bordeaux in the United States), is about a man who drinks himself to death. [4]