“Stunning!”
“Fantastic!”
“Book of the year!”
“What a great read!”
“A very beautiful book.”
“Absolutely amazing – brilliant!”
“A superb job!”
ESOX lucius
Front cover painting by David Miller.
Cover size: 245 mm x 175 mm
Pages: 320 pages.
Print: Full colour throughout.
Binding: Cloth-bound in dark green (hardback) embossed in silver to front cover and spine, red ‘top and tails’ matching red endpapers. Silk laminated dust jacket. Special ESOX lucius book-mark.
Esox lucius, the pike, has engendered fear and hatred in many people and yet affection, respect and awe in others. A creature so ferocious, yet so fragile, the pike has survived for millions of years, existing long before the arrival of Homo sapiens. It is one of the great success stories in the natural history of planet Earth, where it has adapted to fulfil its predatory role across the northern hemisphere.
Remarkably, Esox lucius has managed to do this despite being systematically maligned, persecuted and slaughtered. Thankfully, we now live in more enlightened times, where most now recognise the importance of the species in a healthy and balanced aquatic environment.
Such change didn’t come about by accident and the turning point came in 1977, with the establishment of the Pike Anglers’ Club. Conservation minded anglers and fishery owners followed, to make everybody aware that our ecosystem needs pike, and acted to stop their senseless killing. Since then, we have seen a ‘golden age’ for both pike and pike angling.
CONTRIBUTORS: Andy Berwick, Rob Christen, Rikki Cooper, John Costello, Mick Crisp, Ken Crow, Mick Cutler, Neville Fickling, Dr James Gardner, David Hatwell, Luke Kelbrick, Andy Lush, Pete Mann, Sam Meeuwissen, John Milford, Lionel Mills, Nick Peat, Stewart Pope, Al Rawlings, Nigel Savage, Paul Sharman, Graham Slater, John Synnuck, Eddie Turner, Dave Vaissiere, Phil Wakeford
Pete Curtis (Map illustrations and diagrams)
“I haven’t put it down since I got home from work!” STEVE ‘SPIKE’ GOULD
“What a great work! Definitely the book of the year. Well done Michael Cutler and Stephen Harper. Can’t put it down.” PHIL JACKSON
“A very beautiful book, full with interesting chapters by serious pike anglers. Well done!” ALFRED NAGY (Austria)
“Got my contributor’s copy and for me the cover artwork alone is worth the price of the book, it’s absolutely amazing – the content is fantastic and the layout and design is brilliant but that’s to be expected from Stephen Harper.” DAVID VAISSIERE
“Mine’s arrived and cost me a night’s sleep. What a great read – I couldn’t put it down.” NICK PEAT
“I think Mick has done a superb job in compiling this book – and it’s finally out – with the added bonus of Stephen Harper’s ‘Midas touch’” JOHN MILFORD
