Nichola Fletcher is a lady of obvious talent. Besides being an artist and goldsmith, she runs a venison mail-order business, and writes interesting books. You can’t go wrong doing a book on food, since it is something of interest to everybody in one way or another. Fish and game occupy a lot of her effort, and rightly so, since she and her husband live in Scotland, and her husband John raises deer for the table.

Ms Fletcher tells us that “Carp is another celebratory fish used in many cultures. For both Chinese and Japanese it is a symbol of good health and longevity.”

It is suggested that carp made their way from China to Europe via the silk route in the seventeenth century, carried in tanks. That being so, English carp fishermen are deeply indebted to the Chinese, as well as those who bore the burden of those carp-laden fish tanks all that long distance. I wonder if the Chinese know what the English carp fishermen do to their fish – kiss them and throw them back in. I don’t want to be an apologist for English carp fishermen; they have to face those odd looks the Chinese give them all on their own. I explain that the English carp fishermen are a snobby lot; in the days of the monasteries carp were kept in ponds for food. Since then, the upper class British fishermen who were out for salmon, in clean water, probably never even encountered a carp, let alone tried eating one. So if they didn’t eat them, the lower classes, slavishly imitating their betters, as they do, didn’t eat them either.

The Chinese must take an even dimmer view of the Americans who seine the carp out of their lakes, and let them rot on the bank – thus illustrating the efficiency with which their departments of fish and game operate. In the Christian world fish is the emblem of Christ,” Ms Fletcher tells us. Meat, they thought, stimulated lust, whereas fish was supposed to have a calming effect. In fact, the opposite is probably true. We hear from Ms Fletcher about some really rip-roaring banquets throughout history. And Ms Fletcher herself tells us about one of her own, in which she presented nine kinds of venison dishes, starting with venison consommé, and going on to venison charcuterie, slices of haunch, venison salami and dry-cured venison, similar to Parma ham, and more. I wish I could have been there.

I met John Fletcher at the Game Fair last summer. He wrote in his book, which he presented to me: “For Sidney Du Broff, I hope you enjoy this book. It was a pleasure to meet you.”

John, I did enjoy your book. And meeting you was my pleasure. John also presented me with some venison, which was very good, and turned out to be shin, which surprised me, since it isn’t usually so good. But it’s what you do with it that makes the difference.

John got his doctorate from Cambridge University school of Veterinary Medicine, founded the Veterinary Deer Society. He consults in many parts of the world on the subject of deer, which he farms very successfully – now. Life in the beginning was tough, with even such things as a road, which most of us take for granted, virtually non-existent in the part of Scotland where John was intending to establish his deer farm.

He describes the occasion when he witnessed the birth of twin red deer, never, he tells us, recorded before in Scottish deer history. The hind was a domesticated animal, not reluctant to give birth in the presence of others - man or beast, definitely not the case with completely wild deer, who seek out a place which is completely isolated. As it was close to winter, the mother red deer instinctively knew that her twins would not survive, and abandoned them. They were subsequently bottle fed, and named Bonnie and Clyde. Deer in the Highlands do not find an easy life, living always on the edge, since summers are short, and winters harsh. John points out that under these conditions, one in four calves are not going to make it. If you contrast Highland red deer to those of their Continental cousins, the differences are remarkable, when, for them, food is in abundance.

Having spoken about deer, maybe you want to eat some. John can supply it. A shoulder, boned and rolled, will cost you £8.26 a pound. Loin (boneless sirloin roast) runs £16.84 a pound. If you want to know how to cook venison, you can get Nichola Fletcher’s Ultimate Venison Cookery, £20.00 in hardback. Contact John at: Fletchers, Reedhill, Auchtermuchty, Fife, KY14 7HS

When Samantha Brown, Managing Director of Viking Arms Ltd, handed me a copy of their latest catalogue, I was absolutely overwhelmed. It is 449 pages long, and an delight to behold. It covers the whole range of shooting – rifles, shotguns and all the accessories. Take the Henry, a rifle used in the American Civil War, one of which was owned by President Abe Lincoln, still made today and distributed by Viking. Or how about a replica Brown Bess, standard issue of the British Army from 1715 to 1835, right with black powder. Ruger offers a large choice in small and big-bore rifles, and shotguns. There’s Merkel from Germany, guns that last for generations, and Fabarm from Italy, with some very handsome models in the British mode. You can spend hours just going through the catalogue, putting some new things on your wish list. Congratulations to Samantha Brown for creating this compelling work.

© Sidney Du Broff 2010