Almost ready!
In order to save audiobooks to your Wish List you must be signed in to your account.
Log in Create accountShop small, give big!
With credit bundles, you choose the number of credits and your recipient picks their audiobooks—all in support of local bookstores.
Start giftingLimited-time offer
Get two free audiobooks!
Nowโs a great time to shop indie. When you start a new one credit per month membership supporting local bookstores with promo code SWITCH, weโll give you two bonus audiobook credits at sign-up.
Sign up todayThe Old Man and the Sand Eel
This audiobook uses AI narration.
Weโre taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.
Learn morePenguin presents the audiobook edition of The Old Man and the Sand Eel, written and read by Will Millard.
Growing up on the Cambridgeshire Fens, Will Millard never felt more at home than when he was out with his granddad on the riverbank whiling away the day catching fish. As he grew older his competitive urge to catch more and bigger fish led him away from that natural connection between him, his grandfather and the rivers of his home and into large commercial fisheries catching fish after fish. That is, until the fateful day he let a record-breaking sand eel slip through his fingers and he knew that he had lost the magic of those days down by the river, and that something had to change. Armed with his late grandfather's well-thumbed fishing encyclopaedia Will set out on a quest to get back to his roots and catch some of our great forgotten fish species, hidden deep in our lost waterways.
The Old Man and the Sand Eel is at its heart the story of three generations of men trying to figure out what it is to be a man, a father and a fisherman. It plots Will's scaly stepping stones back to his childhood innocence and late granddad, and a return to the importance of understanding the truly feral through a child's eyes, when anything was possible and the wild was everywhere.
Will Millard grew up on the Cambridgeshire Fens, reading John Wilson's Fishing Encyclopaedia and fishing with his grandfather. Since then he has become a British writer, explorer and BBC presenter.
Will spent his twenties criss-crossing the forests and remotest West Papua in search of ancient tribal trade routes, before his solo descent of a West African river, which became an acclaimed series for BBC Radio 4. In 2015 he lived alongside Aboriginal whale harpooners and subsistence-hunting sea-nomads as part of his maiden television series 'Hunters of the South Seas' for BBC 2. He regularly writes for Geographical, Outdoor Fitness, the Daily Telegraph and Vice magazine.
When at home, Will continues to fish, seeking out the forgotten wild waterways around Britain.
The Old Man and the Sand Eel is his first book.
Will Millard grew up on the Cambridgeshire Fens, reading John Wilson's Fishing Encyclopaedia and fishing with his grandfather. Since then he has become a British writer, explorer and BBC presenter.
Will spent his twenties criss-crossing the forests and remotest West Papua in search of ancient tribal trade routes, before his solo descent of a West African river, which became an acclaimed series for BBC Radio 4. In 2015 he lived alongside Aboriginal whale harpooners and subsistence-hunting sea-nomads as part of his maiden television series 'Hunters of the South Seas' for BBC 2. He regularly writes for Geographical, Outdoor Fitness, the Daily Telegraph and Vice magazine.
When at home, Will continues to fish, seeking out the forgotten wild waterways around Britain.
The Old Man and the Sand Eel is his first book.