The collected short stories as they appeared in The Angling Times, along with one or two that didn't make the cut.A BORN-AGAIN angler returns to the river after a 30-year gap to discover that much has changed and, as the title suggests, events seldom go according to plan. With workmates who jeer and scoff, fellow anglers who are hide-the-knives weird and venues where you are more likely to catch an airgun pellet than a trout, this is a long way from the hazy, summer idyll of fishing publications and satellite TV shows in which there is no school run and presenters don't have to pretend that characters like The King of the River are sane, or explain to their wives why the overdraft limit on the joint account has been increased without her knowledge to pay for something that absolutely definitely had nothing to do with fishing.The Bad Angler doesn't gloss over these things, because he has nothing to sell but optimism and the indomitable belief that, sooner or later, no matter how bad it gets, if you make enough casts and don't quit, drown or die of cold, there will be a bite. Welcome to the North-East of England, where the rain stings, the wind howls and the snow falls deep. There aren't many fish either. But through the mud, cold, tackle shop arguments and occasional domestic disputes over the spiralling cost of Daddy's latest venture, the fun of it all still shines through. This book will appeal to anglers, good and bad, and heroic failures everywhere.