WHEN my latest book was published, the resplendent Dame Prue Leith not only gave it a resounding endorsement (in print and on television), but also invited me and Mrs Reel Life to join in her belated birthday celebrations this September. And so it was that, during the week when our late Queen was suddenly to leave us, I was standing on the banks of the river Spey, at Ballindalloch, 14-footer in hand.
Although I have fished nine of its beats, this is not a river I know really well and often I find it challengingly brisk (the author Harry Plunket
