The Eel Trap - by Richard Fleming (Hardcover)

About the Book

A deeply reflective, lyrical debut memoir tracing a lifelong devotion to the soil, the sea and traditional skill, the tragic collapse of the European freshwater eel and one man's quiet rebellion against our modern disconnection from nature.

Book Synopsis

An evocative, lyrical debut memoir from the heart of our vanishing countryside - a story of the solitary life of an eel fisherman and the radical choice to live more in tune with the natural world.

Growing up in rural Herefordshire, Richard Fleming watched as his earth-bound world quietly slipped away. The peasant ethos - built on a shared stewardship of the land and its resources - had given way to private enclosures and stark divisions between landowners and those who worked the soil.

Drawn by the values of that vanishing way of life, Richard set out for the edges of the British Isles. In this intimate debut memoir, Richard recounts his journey from the English countryside to the rugged coast of Connemara, the depths of the Scottish Highlands and to an ancient silver-eel trap in the West Marches, where he harvests eels as they begin their 5,000-mile migration back to the Sargasso Sea. Learning traditional craftsmanship from local carpenters and fishermen, Richard builds himself a quiet, fulfilling life.

But when the European eel population suffers a catastrophic collapse, the idyll of an eelman's life shatters. Realizing that a harmonious relationship with the natural world seems to be no longer possible, leading to a deeply personal awakening as Richard becomes an activist against the exploitative nature of the elver trade.

Both a fierce call to action and a sweeping story of our changing natural world, The Eel Trap asks what it means to belong to a landscape rather than possess it - offering a refuge for anyone longing to reconnect with the wild.

About the Author

Richard Fleming has been a cider maker, beekeeper, forestry worker, writer, musician and, as a former eel fisherman, spent years working rivers, lakes and docklands. His lifelong engagement with nature eventually led him to environmental activism, where he campaigned to close a major legal export loophole in the Severn elver trade. He began writing his Substack column 'Countryside Insider' from his restored sixteenth-century oak-framed cottage near Hay-on-Wye. The Eel Trap is his first book.