An ambitious multimedia adaptation of a well-known and much-beloved classic of 17th-century literature, fit for lovers of art, nature, and the philosophy of fishing
A foundational environmentalist text centuries ahead of its time, The Compleat Angler is one of the most reprinted books in the English language. From the ruins of the English Civil War to the challenges we all face today, Gareth Brookes’s highly original multimedia adaptation of Izaak Walton’s classic focuses on its instructional aspects, highlights its eccentricities and contemplative themes of nature and friendship, and draws parallels between today’s politically divided and ecologically endangered England and that of the 17th century.
Following Brookes’s similarly ambitious The Dancing Plague, this adaptation is lovingly rendered in both linocut engraving and hand-drawn pen-and-ink to contrast the meditative and the instructional in Walton’s writing. As a guidebook on how to fish, this 350-year-old manual makes the perfect gift for any angling enthusiast, and its reflective writing connects with post-pandemic desires for calm, mindful pursuits and a return to nature.
Praise
"The Compleat Angler is a delight, an absolute delight."
—The Slings and Arrows
"Almost a philosophical manual of R & R."
—Peter Morey
"Brookes’ art in this graphic adaptation seems to be perfectly adapted to his subject matter, existing as an item of beauty in its own right."
—Bookmunch
"The Compleat Angler is, truly, a gorgeous object. It's no exaggeration to say that, barring the publisher's details on its dust jacket, every single page of this book would sit handsomely on a gallery wall. But it's also a seductive treatise on reflection - a call, one might say, to inaction, from a slower, more contented past."
—The Irish Times
"It captures Walton’s warm and holistic approach to angling, rivers and waterlife. Walton opens a window on a long-lost England, a world yet to be blighted by industrial capitalism, a natural environment whose beneficence is exploited by those who live off the land to fill supper plates."
—WestminsterExtra
"The Compleat Angler sets linocut prints and inky drawings alongside Walton’s poetic prose, conjuring a landscape of cruelty and plenty in a meditative book of subtle carp, malicious frogs and dainty eels."
—The Guardian
"As a work of art, the comic is stunning... a calming salve in turbulent political times."
—International Journal of Comic Art Blog
