Now here is a treat for those of you who like their fishing spiced with a little intrigue.  Many of you will know that club folklore has it that Arthur Ransome fished at Horton frequently and I have it on good authority that he was a regular visitor to my illustrious predecessor Nat Hunt who would tie flies for Ransome to use on the River and at the Tarn.  Ransome is a fascinating character about whom much has been written down the years since his death in 1967.  A new biography has recently been published that attempts to chart the time he spent in Russia as a correspondent for the Daily News.  It's an established fact that Ransome was an MI6 agent, but this book claims that there is evidence that he may have been a double agent supplying information on British foreign policy to the Bolsheviks. 

Certainly Ransome was pretty close to the main players in the Bolshevik revolution and married Trotsky's secretary, but there is strong evidence that he was fiercely loyal to England although his miserable existence as a schoolboy at Rugby school left him with a deep distrust of authority.  When asked by an MI5 officer tasked with debriefing him what his politics were he replied "fishing".

What's slightly weird is that his main base whist reporting on Russian affairs was a Hotel in Tallinn called the Golden Lion.  Many years later he would once again be based at the Golden Lion, but this time at Horton in Ribblesdale.

So why not add "The Last Englishman: The double Life of Arthur Ransome" by Roland Chambers to your Christmas list and the next time you fish down from Horton or stand by the Tarn reflect on the fact that you may well be standing in the boot prints of a man who witnessed at first hand one of the most momentous events of the early 20th Century, spied for his country and went on to write the most enchanting series of children's books in the English language.

Turning to matters a little more prosaic.  It's been wet this past 48 hours so the river whilst not at its best is just about fishable.  The forecast is for warmer more settled weather over the next couple of days so if you do come up to Horton you may find the fish obliging.

Ian