Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (Paul Torday)

Viewed from a distance, it’s difficult to see how this could be a success – a story of fishing in the desert, told through a series of emails, letters, memos, diary entries and interview transcripts. I had to ignore my initial concerns about the style to get through the start, but this was well worth the effort. The book is a sharp exploration of the cynicism of politics and the governing class, viewed through the eyes of a well-intentioned civil servant. Time-serving official Alfred Jones is plucked from his obscurity to aid the Prime Minister’s aids in a heroically futile scheme – to devise a means of introducing salmon into the Yemen desert, and develop salmon fishing as a tourist attraction there. The powers-that-be are aiming for some grand gesture to Western-Arab relations, as witnessed by the world’s press through a camera-stopping moment. The scientific impossibilities of the scheme are mere project hurdles to be overcome in the search for headlines.

While written as a light farce, the book is cunningly incisive in its attack on the culture of media-hungry ministers and bullying senior officials. Alfred Jones is elevated to the highest ranks in the desire to create the mad project, and dropped just as rapidly as plans develop in an unexpected final twist. The perfect ending to a well constructed argument.