Another One-Minute Book, or, Fishy, Fishy, Fishy, Oh! It went wherever I did go
Get edified in a jiffy! Here's a sampling from another review copy: Fish On Friday: Feasting, fasting and the discovery of the New World by Brian Fagan:
Page 1
Let us now consider how great a terror will come upon us created things, in this present time, when the Judgment draws near; and the revelation of that day will be very terrible to all created things…
Page 8
Roman Seafood Stew
SERVES 6
1¼ lbs/500 g fish fillet in bit-size pieces—ideally halibut or salmon
8 oz/250 ml white wine, preferably a flowery tasting sauvignon blanc (Roman white wines are frequently described as "flowery.")
17 oz/500 ml beef broth…
Page 27
And if the angler catches fish, surely then there is no happier man.
Page 64
Powerful local chieftains in search of prestige more than profits traded stockfish for grain from communities far to the south when Norse voyaging was at its height, long before a full-scale commercial cod fishery developed between A.D. 1150 and 1200.
Page 125
The glory years of the herring fisheries occurred in the early fourteenth century, but catches fell rapidly thereafter, recovering after 1400 but then dipping rapidly for reasons that still elude explanation—perhaps because of still unstudied changes in seawater temperatures.
Page 216
As always, Bristol's leaders were merchants who put profit first, not empire building.
The book ends shortly before the next page in the series, so here's something from the last page of the regular text:
It was not the sudden inspiration of famous names that brought Europeans to North America—not Columbus or Cabot or the settlers at Plymouth Rock—but the thousand-year journey in pursuit of fish.
And here's one I like even better, from the last page of the end notes:
Known popularly as the "Merry Monarch," Charles was a controversial ruler, an impulsive, pleasure-loving king who fostered science and navigation, and enhanced Britain's navy.
