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Description
Scots like to smoke or salt them. The Dutch love them raw. Swedes look on with relish as they open bulging, foul-smelling cans to find them curdling within. Jamaicans prefer them with a dash of chili pepper. Germans and the English enjoy their taste best when accompanied by pickle's bite and brine.
The herring has done much to shape both human taste and history. Men cooperated and came into conflict over its shoals, setting out on boats to catch them and straying to bring full nets to shore. Women gutted and salted the catch during the annual harvest and knitted the garments fishermen wore to protect them from the ocean's chill.
Following a journey from the western edge of Norway to the east of England, from Shetland and the Outer Hebrides to the fishing ports of the Baltic coast of Germany and the Netherlands, Donald S. Murray has stitched together tales of the fish that was of central importance to the lives of many Europeans, noting how both it--and those involved in its capture--were celebrated in the art, literature, craft, music, and folklore of northern Europe.
Blending together politics, science, history, religion, and commercial life, Murray contemplates, too, the possibility of restoring the silver darlings of legend to their long-ago shores.
Product details
Published | Nov 10 2015 |
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Format | Hardback |
Edition | 1st |
Extent | 272 |
ISBN | 9781472912169 |
Imprint | Bloomsbury Natural History |
Illustrations | Greyscale maps, colour plate section |
Dimensions | 216 x 135 mm |
Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
About the contributors
Reviews
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The story is told with great charm, and tinged with a spirit of loss and yearning.
Philip Marsden, The Spectator
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Mr Murray is a gregarious and engaging raconteur as he flips between the diverse aspects of this versatile little creature.
The Economist
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This is a splendid book, filled with passion, wit, and wonderful facts.
Geographical magazine
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...a fine, scholarly, restless and keen-brained work.
John Macleod, Scottish Review of Books
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It's a fascinating book and worth a read.
The Glasgow Herald
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Like the herring, this is a book that darts across time and oceans. It gleams with story. A wonderful read.
Sally Magnusson