Freebird Publishing
The Horton Chronicles

Over the past 20 years, there are not many anglers that have not heard about Horton Church Lake near Heathrow Airport. Run by CEMEX Angling, Horton Church Lake has become the "home of British Carp fishing" for many of the name anglers that are in the magazines and angling media.

With stories and articles rife amongst the annals of carp angling history, Keith Jenkins has put together a collection of tales from anglers that fished Horton from the beginning as a syndicate water through to more recent times.

Horton has suffered over the years, inparticulary with the notorious accidental stocking of small carp that a lot of people feel was the catalyst of the major fish kill which wiped out a lot of the old Longfield fish that were relocated due to the building of the M25, and these tales as well as others are catalogued in this book.

The Horton Chronicles is not just about heartache, but also reliving the captures of history fish such as Shoulders, The Parrot, Jack The Net Ripper, the Thorpe Park Common, Tetleys, C.P's, Lumpy, The Lady and many others that have graced the unhooking mats of anglers such as Peter Springate, Phil Thompson, Dave Lane, Ian Chillcott, and other profile anglers over the years.

Freebird Publishing hold Horton Church Lake very close to it's heart and the presentation of the book shows this. The antique looking hardback cover stands out like a classic novel, and sets the scene for the read ahead. Each page has been "aged" during the print run, and gives the impression that you are reading history (which the book is all about). The presentation of the book alone is worth the asking price regardless of the content. The content of the book is made up of 22 chapters by different anglers who have fished Horton over the years. Inbetween each chapter, there is a brief synopsis of individual swims situated on the venue which is a nice touch to go with the map of the lake that is printed inside the front and back covers.

Contributors to the book include Del Smith, Johnny Moult, Steve Mogford, Garth Ethelstone, Pete Bond, Chris Pearson, Kevin Winter and others.

This is not a book that you are going to learn how to tie a rig or make a bait etc, but a book that anybody who cares about carp angling history will pick up and read again, and again. Once I had picked the book up and started to read it, I simply could not put it down until I had read all 400 pages (to the disgust of my wife!), and then returned to the start of it and read it again!

I now wish that I had took the ticket when my name come up for the 2000/2001 season!!

The Horton Chronicles is launched at the Carpin'On 2011 Show on the weekend of 5/6 March 2011 and has a price of £30. Be forewarned though that there is only a limited print run of this book, and once sold out, the price will raise through private sales, if you are lucky enough to find a person who wants to sell it!