Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday

This is one of the best pieces of satire that I have ever read, full of humour and satirical digs at the bureaucracy. The story, which is a debut novel for this author, is told in the form of emails, letters, phone text messages, journals, diaries and entries from Hansard, the official report of proceedings in the British Parliament, as well as wonderful political spin interviews with members of the government and intercepted al-Qaeda email messages.When Alfred Jones, a fisheries scientist with the British Government, receives a letter from an up-market estate agent, Harriet Chetwode-Talbot saying that she has a client who would like to introduce the sport of salmon fishing into the Yemen, he dismisses it out of hand as a ridiculous idea. However, the combination of the client being incredibly wealthy and the pressure from the Prime Minister's communications officer and spin master, Peter Maxwell, who sees an excellent front page photo-op, is too much to resist, if he wishes
to keep his job.Alfred Jones is married to a frantically driven female banking executive, Mary, who is interested in only her own promotion within her company and decides to go and live in Geneva for a couple of years, just when they have celebrated their twentieth wedding anniversary for which he has given her a subscription to the Economist and she has given him a new electric toothbrush.Alfred, who by now has noticed the undeniable charms of Harriet and the inescapable wishes of the PM, Jay Vent, is beginning to see the possibilities of moving 10,000 salmon to a river in the desert in Yemen during the rainy season. Once he has spent a day salmon fishing in Scotland with the very likeable Sheik on his estate, he realises that, with enough belief, anything is possible, especially when helped along by an open ended cheque book.Working closely with Harriet, Alfred soon feels resentment for Mary's selfishness and his love life takes a new turn. At the same time, the Sheik is c
onvincing him that the world could live in peace through salmon fishing, and arms his guards with salmon rods accordingly. Through interviews and a television chat show, it becomes obvious that every time things are going well, the bureaucrats take the praise, but when things go wrong they deny any knowledge of the events that have been taking place.Of course there has to be a climax, and it comes when the Prime Minister accompanies Alfred and the Sheik to the Yemen, along with 10,000 salmon, for the first great release.This is a wonderful book with many amusing comments on the absurdities of everyday life, as distinct from that of the bureaucracy, and Torday does not make the mistake of going at everyone in a vicious way, but delivers far more effective satire through his excellent use of humour.

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