Fish-watcher, marine biologist and writer, Trevor Day, has spent nearly a decade researching his latest book, ‘Sardine’, published by Reaktion Books.
Trevor, who lives near Frome, has taught at Frome College and appeared several times at the Frome Festival. Author or co-writer of more than 40 books, he will be giving a talk and answering questions about ‘Sardine’ at the book’s launch at Hunting Raven Bookshop on Wed. evening 3rd October.
Trevor explained, “Sardine has been the most challenging book of my career. It’s written for a general audience and is wide-ranging, taking in poetry, literature, history and art, as well as gastronomy, biology and economics. A strong theme running throughout is our relationship with nature – told through the story of this familiar fish.
“No-one has written a similar book about sardines, and there are good reasons for that. In the first place, deciding what is and is not a sardine is quite tricky. Sardines – or pilchards as they are sometimes called – are found right across the world. There are thousands of stories about them, and I’ve had to be selective.’
“Sardines have been objects of protest, dumped at the gates of a polluting factory in Japan. One of the world’s most important libraries was set up using profits from the Devon pilchard industry. In several parts of the world, fishing for sardines has made fortunes for some, and then when stocks collapsed because of over-fishing, tens of thousands have been put out of work.
“In researching the book I travelled to South Africa, Portugal, California and Mexico. When diving alongside a shoal of sardines off South Africa our dive group was harassed by six sharks. I like diving with sharks, but that’s the only time I’ve had to get out of the water because of them.”
To find out more about Trevor’s adventures in researching and writing ‘Sardine’, come along to the free event on Wednesday 3rd October at 7.00pm at Hunting Raven Bookshop.
