Upstream on the Mataura

Book excerpt: "In the spirit of Laurie Lee's As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning, Dougal Rillstone's memoir is a lyrical mediation on landscape and moving water, with angling at its heart. Upstream on the Mataura is also about the communities the river runs through, the friendships sustained by fly-fishing, and a love of the river and its tributaries. It is memoir writing at its finest. Rillstone also makes an urgent plea for the guardianship of our rivers saying, 'Deep down I wanted to speak for the rivers. Say something on their behalf, because while they can speak for themselves, too few are listening,' says Rillstone"--Provided by publisher.