New novel – The Summer Crew – takes comic look at life in 1980s Moray through River Spey workers' escapades
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A MORAY-BORN writer takes readers back four decades and down the River Spey in his latest novel charting the summer shenanigans of a fictional 1980s salmon netting crew.
Kingston-raised author and digital designer John Bennett's second novel, The Summer Crew, is written in Morayshire Doric and follows a half-dozen temporary workers taken on for the grilse run at salmon nets on the mouth of the Spey – and all the many hilarious adventures that ensue.
A wider net has been cast for the plot than salmon fishing however; the book can claim to be a gently comic, far broader look at life in Moray, the north-east and rural Scotland, in the same vein of one of John's inspirations, the tales of Para Handy by Neil Munro.
With a similar lightness of touch and humour, John's stories follow the new recruits – the worst that skipper Sandy Geddes has ever seen – as they struggle to learn the ropes to net salmon using a flat-bottomed boat, a coble.
In their free-time ramblings, the characters pop up at Keith Show, a rave in Rothes and Garmouth's Maggie Fair.
Moray's own Northern Scot earns a few mentions, most notably in a chapter entitled The Obscenity, about a (fictional) heroic local journalist.
The Summer Crew launch had been originally planned for March at Yeadons in Elgin, but was written off by the coronavirus lockdown.
John (50) who now lives in London, faced another setback when both he and his wife contracted coronavirus. He has spent the last few weeks recovering at home.
Although bookshops remain closed the launch will now go ahead online this week – and the novel has already attracted some interest from TV production companies.
Former Mosstodloch Primary School, Milne’s High School and Elgin Academy pupil John said his book was a light read in which the chapters can stand alone as short stories. The book builds in gravity, however, as the Atlantic salmon stocks drop and netting falls into jeopardy.
As an Aberdeen University student, John had returned to Kingston, west of the River Spey mouth, to work the nets for a summer. He said: "I worked an oar on a salmon boat on the River Spey for a season at the end of the 1980s.
"The events and characters in The Summer Crew are fictional, but I hope it has captured something of that world.
"One of my main inspirations was Para Handy. If you come from Moray you'll recognise the types of characters and you'll get the humour.
"It's a pretty light and easy read, and I think it might make a nice change to the difficult stories we've all been reading for the last few weeks.
"I've had very positive feedback and, particularly because it's written in Doric, folk get it. It's about places like Elgin and Fochabers and the types of characters people will recognise. There's a nostalgic element and hopefully people will enjoy looking back.
"And since people can't go to Keith Show this year, they can at least read about it."
The rapid decline of Scotland's inshore salmon netting industry was a direct impact of the drop in Atlantic salmon numbers returning to its rivers.
On the Spey, crews mainly fished the Bridge and Lower Bridge pools, with the catch taken to grass-roofed ice houses in Tugnet for storage before going to big fish markets in the south.
John's father, Richard, was an English teacher at Elgin Academy for more than 20 years.
His first book – Sea Otters Gambolling in the Wild, Wild Surf – was published in the UK by Random House. The book spent a couple of weeks in the Scottish top 10 bestsellers and was well received in the national press. John has also written for radio and TV.
The Summer Crew will launch this Friday, June 12, priced £8.99, and is available at www.speybooks.co.uk.
