WORDS

'You have to have that magic spark in you, for it to mean anything, for it to be anything. You could tell a million people about that and it wouldn’t mean a thing to them, it would just be like dust on the ground, so without that magic, you have nothing, that’s all carp fishing is' Part 3 of Terry's interview

We return with Part 2 of Terry Dempsey's epic, 'Nothing Without the Magic'. We left just as the Darenth days started, and it here we pick it back up. The fishmeal revolution, Geoff, the demise of Longfield, hand rolling bait on the bank, living on a shoestring... this one has it all. Flick the kettle on and sit back for more epic old tales from one of carp fishing's true characters Sub: Was that where you met Geoff and Terry Pethybridge? TD: I’d met Geoff at Yateley, actually, but yeah, I met Tel at Darenth. I loved Yateley, it was...

Steam poured from the electric kettle in the kitchen as Terry made tea, already he was excitedly re-counting tales. I was lost in a bygone age, devouring images of old. The corners of the photo albums were browned and the spines falling apart having seen much better days, but the faded prints still reeked of history and atmosphere under their protective slips, the steely greys of Darenth mirrors still resonating all these years on. Flicking through the pages felt like I was privilege to something sacred, something no one had seen before. I left Bromley that day with a head...

So much of life seems to be about a pretty bland level of comfort and security these days. In fact, if you listen to the news or get sucker-punched by advertising, that is almost all that is seemingly on offer. Sanitised experiences; Just Eat, Netflix, Costa, Sky … live your best life through Instagram, but settle for mediocrity and homogenisation in reality. ‘Treat yourself, you deserve it’ the adverts bleat on, but sitting down in Extremadura with Samir, life couldn’t have felt any further away from that. It was near midnight by the time we rolled the tape, on the...