Deep into Maggie’s Farm

A first proof of yet another illustration from the book on the Kentish Fenland I’m working on. This time it is for a chapter featuring a legendary Pike called Maggie. The Pike is a fish that often features in local legends and apocryphal tales abound about their ability to take ducklings, ducks and many other water fowl, a swirl on the surface and the bird is dragged down to its doom. They do grow big, the largest I’ve ever caught was twenty seven and a half pounds but I have seen one much bigger than that fish and one pike that I caught had a bite mark on its flank just over eight inches across, definitely a lucky escape for that fish. You’ll have to read the book when it is published to find out more about Maggie, who by the way, was named after Margaret Thatcher. This was the very first proof of the block which has now had more work carried out on it and as always there is more to follow.