Rigby’s Encyclopaedia of the Herring

aka The Herripedia

By

Graeme Rigby

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SURSTRÖMMING

On the Swedish herring delicacy which defies delicacy, insisting upon schnapps and communal singing in the face of its intimations of mortality

SVETOVIDOV

On the Russian fish systematist who, having dealt the gadoid species, turned his great mind to the clupeidae

TAXONOMY

On the biological classification of the herring and the taxonomic can of worms it opens up at species level and below

The Art of Gutting Fish (5 of 6)

Fishwives? Fisher lasses? Herring girls? Herring lasses? Lots of them! Plus an interview with artist Penelope Payne on her herring lass works...

TOURISM: MISSED OPPORTUNITIES

On AC Hardy's proposal for a herring research centre and William Hodgson's brief vision of what might have been a formidable tourist attraction

TRAWLING

On the development of beam trawling which doesn't target herring (but destroys their spawning grounds) and pelagic trawling which does

ULLAPOOL

The story of a herring port, built with what seemed the best of intentions, but without consideration for the fish's noted unreliability

VENTJAGER

How they got the good new herring from somewhere off the coast of Scotland to wealthy Dutch burghers fresh from a hard day of being painted by Rembrandt

WEDGWOOD

In which we lust after that object of desire, the Wedgwood Queen's Ware herring dish (c 1780)

What’s in a Name? (3 of 6)

Carousel, Biggie Smalls & Angus Watson; taxonomy, racial theory & global warming: a herring tale in 8 fitts with 8 hand-crafted limericks.

WHITE HERRING

On the nature of white herring, its international markets and its historical underachievement with the Great British public

WITCHCRAFT

The role of herrings in England's penultimate witch trial and the subsequent part the narrative played in shaping the hysteria in Salem

X, CRUX OR KRUIS BRAND

An entry that possibly should have been filed under C, but which spuriously allows alphabetic completism

YAWL

On the nature of the boat known as a yawl and the difference between the Norwegian and Scarborough versions

ZOOLOGY

Heavily reliant on the zoological description of the Soviet systematist AN Svetovidov, an account of what a herring is

ZULU

A compromise between the Fifie and the Scaffie, a boat with a popular design which didn't adapt well to the introduction of steam

ZUYDERZEE

Home to a once distinct population of inshore herrings lost to the dyke building tendencies of The Netherlands

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