Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World

This was interesting, covering the history of cod fishing all over the place, but mostly Canada, Iceland/Greenland and the demand for salt-cod in Spain, the West Indies and of course Britain.

For me however it missed a trick, and I would have liked to have a part of the book focus on the fish, not the fishing. There was a void where the scientific details of the many types of cod could have been explored and assessed. Instead we get a few of these types of facts spread through the narrative. For me, the “Biography of the fish that changed the world” needed to have this detail around the fish. A more accurate title would have replaced the word ‘fish' with ‘fishing'

But we get a good history of the fishing techniques and the boats, and we get an detailed history of the fishing grounds, the trade routes, the laws, the wars and the politics. Also worth a mention are the recipes spread through the book, and a concentration of these at the end however these all got a bit samey for me.

There are a lot of reviews already which explain the histories from the Basque voyaging to Canada to fish but keeping it secret for so long to the commercial operators today without cod to catch. I wouldn't do it justice here to try and pull together a narrative.

For me, just a 3 star read, with the biography missing its main component! If you are less interested in cod and more interested in cod fishing and it's history, this may be the book for you.