Take the 1970s BBC classic Yes Minister, throw in the irreverence of Ricky Gervais’ The Office and mix it with the contemporary satire of In the Loop, Smack the Pony and I’m Alan Partridge and the resultant mixture is closely akin to the very British Salmon Fishing in theYemen by Paul Torday.
Alfred ‘Fred’ Jones is in a loveless marriage to a successful banker who rules the couple’s life by logarithms and bank balances. Fred is a respected, serious scientist whose whole life evolves around aquatic ecosystems and breeding patterns of freshwater fish.
So he does not take kindly to being instructed by the Ministry of Fisheries to take seriously the approach by a Real Estate company to set up salmon fishing in the Yemen. ‘Fish need water’ is intrinsically Fred’s sensible response to what, to him, is a bird-brained idea. And that is the end of the matter.
The scientist could not be further from the truth. The problem is that the client is Sheikh Muhammad ibn Zaidi bani Tihama, an ultra- wealthy Anglophile Yemenite. And the project has come to the attention of no less than the British prime minister, desperate for some positive news from the Middle East – along with the public sale of British expertise.
Thus Fred Jones, as an employee of the ministry and civil servant, must put his reputation on the line.
Told in a series of diary entries, emails, newspaper and police reports, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen wastes little time in providing background information on people, emotions or feelings – or at least not in too many words.
A three-sentence email from the master of spin, Peter Maxwell, the PM’s director of communications, can nail situation, background, likely reaction emotionally and politically as well as required outcome. Old boy networks facilitate shorthand; the general order of the establishment and protocol hardly needs to be publicly iterated.
Maxwell can dangle a possible recognition in the New Year’s honours list for a successful exploration of the Sheikh’s proposal and which opens many doors. Only of course it is off the record and doors can be equally shut tight if the project fails. And if it does fail, the government has, naturally, not been involved….
As Fred’s wife is posted to the Zurich office of her employer, so the scientist becomes more and more enamoured with the project, unaware of the political shenanigans further up the ladder of power.
He’s too naïve to recognise them anyway: Fred’s hardly aware that his own marriage is falling apart.
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is a charming, witty political satire but which is also a tale of faith and self-belief. It’s light, taking infuriating petty officialdom and bureaucracy to an extreme. But it also becomes more and more plausible as a scheme, which makes the ending even more unexpected.
But the major flaw of Torday’s debut novel is the emotional distance. Little time is spent developing character or emotional depth. As a story it works, but little else. Thus its 320 pages fly pass – and which is likely addressed in the forthcoming feature film starring Ewan McGregor, Emily Blunt and, interestingly, Kristin Scott Thomas as the gender-swopped director of communications Maxwell.
Expect a great deal more emotion and a bigger love interest as Fred (McGregor) not only looks to succeed in filling Yemenite wadis with North Atlantic salmon, but also falls for the Sheikh’s legal representative, Harriet Chetwode-Talbot.
Keith Lawrence - Published writer of articles in magazines, newspapers and websites, predominantly on culture, alongside ghostwriter/editor/copywriter.
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