In 1981, when he was thirty-three and had just caught what was then the largest British carp, Chris Yates wondered if he could now dream of capturing Redmire's Pool's real monster: the King.

But far from the King itself, it was the idea of such a leviathan that hooked Chris that summer, playing him along the banks for one final season before releasing him back into the world. Chris's account of those pivotal months – originally published as The Lost Diary – recounts the final reckoning of an angler's long relationship with a beloved and mysterious pool.

It is also a magical record of both familiar and freshly discovered waters, meetings with new friends, and unexpected encounters with creatures other than fish and presences that are not quite human.