The Cast
Jeff Barrett – Co-founder, Caught by the River
Robin Turner – Co-founder, Caught by the River
Andrew Walsh – Co-founder, Caught by the River
John Andrews – i buy and sell vintage fishing tackle for the soul at www.andrewsofarcadia.com and on my stall at old spitalfields market every thursday. i also write about angling history for caught by the river who publish the sporadic ‘letters from arcadia’ that i do in collaboration with dexter petley. my other writing can be found in publications as diverse as the times, classic angling, the old town evening star and waterlog.
Jon Berry – Jon Berry – began fishing at the age of five, catching a tiny trout on a Highland stream. For thirty-five years he has tried to replicate the brilliance of that moment by chasing coarse, game and sea fish in all parts of the British Isles. I am currently working on my second book, A Train To Catch, for the Medlar Press. My first book, A Can of Worms, was published in 2007. When not fishing or writing, I am a school teacher, failed guitarist and supporter of Southampton F.C.
Will Burns – Will was born in London and raised in Buckinghamshire. He never finished his degree and after stints as a dustbin man, window cleaner, housepainter, flowerseller, factory worker and removal man he got a job in a record shop and started a band with his brother and best friends called Treecreeper, for whom Will writes the songs. He also writes poems (and damn good Bios), which have been featured by, amongst others, Caught By The River, the Broken Dimanche Press, Structo magazine and The Independent on-line.
Andy Childs – currently works as a distribution consultant for several record labels and artists. Previously he has had over 35 years experience working in the music business – as editor of Zigzag magazine, then in various roles at United Arists, EMI, Demon Records, Rough Trade and Rykodisc. Spends as much time reading and writing these days as listening to music and sometimes wishes he’d been able to pursue a parallel career in publishing as well. Lives in Harrow with his wife Karen.
Roger Clapham – hasn’t been fishing since he was a child in North Yorkshire. He lives in East London with his wife and enjoys ale in all its hues, escaping the city on his bike or on foot, and spending too long in record shops. He works in print media and crosses the River Lea every day on the way to work.
Mathew Clayton – lives in Sussex h with his wife Gemma and two children Laurie and Stella. He runs a literary tent at Glastonbury called The Free University of Glastonbury, plays in this band http://www.myspace.com/thedulwichukuleleclub, writes about the history of Ibiza for Pacha magazine and commission books for The History Press. In his previous job he commissioned the Caught by the River book.
Frank Cottrell Boyce – is a screenwriter, novelist and actor.
Tim Dee – is the author of The Running Sky and co-editor, with Simon Armitage, of The Poetry of Birds.
Pete Fowler – Artist, musician, sound recordist, dapper chap and longtime Friend of the River. Pete Fowler is one half of Seahawks and lord and creator of Monsterism Island. Pete conceived the weekly ramblings of Caught By The River cartoon characters Piscator & Fitch.
Nick Franglen – Musician and producer (Lemon Jelly and Blacksand), which has never felt like work. When I’m not not working I can be found diving deep wrecks in the Channel, and exploring abandoned buildings before dawn. www.blacksand.info.
Hannah Hamilton – is a jack of all trades but likes writing the most. When not travelling through India or Africa, she lives by the river in County Kilkenny, where she keeps busy running the Inchbeg Fishing School.
Richard King – is the editor of Loops, a bi-annual journal published by Domino Records & Faber & Faber. He is currently writing a picaresque history of the independent record business. He lives mainly in mid-Wales, within sight of the Wye.
Ceri Levy – is a documentary film maker, writer and producer who is best known for the documentary film Bananaz about the band Gorillaz. Ceri is at present working on a film about the way birds inspire and affect people. It’s title is The Bird Effect.
Ben McCormick – Landlord of the Beer Advent Calendar, irregular long-distance cyclist and resident DJ at monthly night Aardvark to Zebra in Shoreditch. Still trying to finish his memoirs on a formative French carp fishing trip in 2002 and itching to get back to the riverbank again.
Ben Myers – has written for Melody Maker, The Guardian, NME and Mojo and his new novel Richard is published by Picador in 2010. He lives in rural Yorkshire. www.benmyersmanofletters.blogspot.com
Kevin Pearce – Writing. Music. Connections. www.thelondonnobodysings.blogspot.com
Dexter Petley – born in the Weald of Kent, lives in a caravan in France; novelist, translator, angling writer; radical anti-social surviving on low energy, permaculture and mushroom gathering. www.dexterpetley.com
Kavel Rafferty – is an illustrator living in Barcelona (originally from the UK), where she has a small gallery. She likes Northern soul and flea markets.
www.kavels.net
Charles Rangeley – was once a painter and is now a writer. He’s working on a new book about a river and about the way we are shaped by and in turn shape our landscape. He lives in Norfolk. http://www.hotasafish.com/
Jude Rogers – is a journalist and Welsh woman living in London who loves boys, books, the Bauhaus, dusty records, solo film outings, long walks, red wine, pork belly, the smell of woodsmoke and tarmac, black eyeliner, chipped nail varnish and writing for love or money. Her website counting down her 50 songs of the decade is www.50songs10years.blogspot.com.
Neil Sentance – originally from the farmlands of Lincolnshire, wouldn’t know one end of a fishing rod from the other. Formerly, he could often be spotted propping up bars in London, drinking Batemans or Black Sheep, and dreaming about muddy meadows, woodlands and riverways. Happily, these days he is mostly to be found with his wife and children in the wilds of west Dorset, editing history books and walking the coast paths.
Nick Small – Film fettlin’, music video meddlin’, photography peddlin’, bilberry pickin’, boreal forest dwellin’, wild river lovin’ man o’ the North.
Luke Turner – is a founding editor of The Quietus music and arts website, and enjoys spending optimistic hours on the banks of Hackney waterways.
Nina Walsh – has never caught a fish in her life but she cooks a mean tart and talks to vegetables. When she is not in the studio creating industrial, electronic folk music her time is either spent running film crew catering business “Felix & Pi”, foraging the local parks & hedgerows, accompanied by her dog Droog or tending her allotment. A dance floor veteran, Nina prefers to spend her evenings nowadays with a good book and a glass of red in her tree house in South London.
Chris Watson – is the UK’s leading sound recordist specialising in natural history and wildlife. In a previous life he was in the experimental music group Cabaret Voltaire.
Chris Yates – a hero to many. recently described by The Independent as ‘The Master’. This is true of his writing and his fishing. Stands alongside the late Roger Deakin as the patron saint of Caught by the River. (JB)
