David Profumo

The Lightning Thread is a uniquely erudite memoir, recounting personal anecdotes from over sixty years of fishing in many countries, enhanced by a plethora of historical and literary commentaries that make it an entertaining read, even for the non-angler. David Profumo is a writer and journalist, with an obsessive love and profound knowledge of fishing. Not just depicting the ‘fishological moments’, but also conveying the sense of peace and contentment that the combination of fishing and nature provides. This memoir is a marvellous homage to a lifetime's passion.

There is much to be enjoyed and learnt from such an expert and lucid narrator that it makes this a really pleasant, humorous and unusual read. There are so many quietly amusing phrases scattered throughout the book, ‘Rod Rage (which requires Angler Management)’, ‘casting is gear change, watercraft resembles road sense’ and ‘herons mince along the shoreline and ignore you like wine waiters’, that even non-anglers are able to understand. The book title refers to the ethereal connection between angler, rod, line, hook and fish, something I have never personally experienced but can appreciate from his various experiences. He talks of ‘fin fever’ as ‘the quintessence of promise, of imminence’, but salmon fishing in Alaska during the great spawning event in summer when they are so abundant, that ‘Fin Fever Central becomes a touch unreal, like an Escher staircase’.

To read and enjoy a book on a subject that I have no experience or knowledge of, in the hands of an articulate and erudite enthusiast, but not feel excluded at any point made the book a pleasure to read. The one occasion where I did wonder if he had lost me became clear on re-reading and the fact that is it is about one that that got away, explains the prose:

I threw it a blind Rootbeer Charlie, it truffled in, ate and ran for the channel edge, just as an overrun blossomed from my new Loop reel, and he popped the tippet.

The author’s obvious enthusiasm, knowledge and eternal optimism is compelling as is his quiet unassuming humour, often at his own expense.

I confess that this is a book, and author that I would never normally have entertained reading, even if it was the last book on the shelf - well maybe then, but you get my drift. The selection was the result of a blind lucky dip in a box of books at the Hunting Raven bookshop in Frome. I admit to minor curiosity due to the author's surname, but I began reading it with quite low expectations. Much as he says about fishing expectations, ‘If nada is your baseline philosophy, some expeditions will agreeably surprise you’.

It is with some surprise that I admit the book exceeded my expectations, it is not just a book about fishing, well it is and there is plenty for fellow anglers to get excited about, but it is also a pleasure to read. Although I don’t feel any compulsion to take up fishing, I feel I can appreciate what others find appealing in the pastime. Personally I still prefer a book to a fishing rod, but it has encouraged me to keep casting out for new discoveries, extending my comfort zone, you can be pleasantly surprised. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys fishing and those that appreciate the English language in the hands of a skilled craftsman and are prepared to try something different.… (altro)

Review first posted on BookLikes: http://brokentune.booklikes.com/post/764747/bringing-down-the-house

The story of John Profumo, Christine Keeler and Stephen Ward has been in the news again over the past few months following the refusal of the government to release the official records relating to Ward's trial and open further investigation into whether Ward had been a victim to possibly the most publicized miscarriage of justice of the 1960s. To a lesser degree, the recent news coverage has of course also been spurned on by Andrew Lloyd Webber's latest stage production but that is one angle I'll gladly leave to the theatre critics.

I picked up this memoir after reading the official report on the Profumo scandal that was commissioned by the Prime Minister in 1963.

David Profumo's memoirs of the events surrounding his fathers resignation do not add much to the information that is already available. It is a nicely written recollection of his childhood but his using a lot name-dropping does not make his story that engaging to read.… (altro)

In this family memoir David Profumo describes his childhood growing up as the son of disgraced Minister John Profumo and renowned stage and screen actress Valerie Hobson. Obviously the focus of the book is the infamous scandal from the early 1960s, which David recounts surprisingly dispassionately, though the book also manages to give a fascinating insight into the political machinations that preceded Profumo pere's downfall.
One certainly feels for Valerie Hobson. Profumo was her second husband, and his predecessor had been equally unfaithful, dallying with a series of young starlets who were acting in the second rate films that he produced.
I was a little disappointed with this book, though. I had previously read a couple of novels by David Profumo and had been very impressed, but here, despite a potentially enthralling story to tell, he constantly fails fully to engage the reader's attention.
Still, I was glad that I read it.… (altro)

An intriguing alternative view of the future - this novel was published in 1993 and was set a few years ahead of that date at a time shortly after the dismantling of the British monarchy and its replacement with a totalitarian, military-backed republic. However, that context is almost incidental as the meat of the story concerns the reminiscences of the narrator, now residing in self-imposed exile in Switzerland under the name of Dr Richard Slyde, though he had formerly revelled in the titles of Marquess of Brompton and Duke of London.
Born with a platinum spoon in his mouth, Richard was raised on the munificent Spellbrook estate, attended Eton and passed on to scholarly success at Cambridge. However, the sharpest memoris are of the amazing products of the various Spellbrook orchards and the exploits of the estate's African gamekeeper. This offers Profumo (son of THE Profumo) the opportunity to lament the loss of the short-lived fruit seasons of a few generations ago, to be replaced with the availability all year round of anodyne modern copies of older, sharper-tasting breeds. However, he never gives the sense that he is proselytizing, though he does open the door on an encyclopedic knowledge of the vast range of fruits available. He also manages to throw in an intriguing potted history of barbed wire -not a subject about which I had ever previously wanted to know more, though now I am glad that i do!
Essentially the novel is about loss - the fragmentation of the narrator's family is mirrored by the break-up of the Spellbrook estate, and then, indeed, the United Kingdom itself.
I first read this novel shortly after its publication and was enthralled and captivated then. having read it again, following a chance conversation about it in the pub, I am even more taken with it, and re-reading it in no way diminished the magic.… (altro)