Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

The Book

A wealthy sheikh, who has a passion for game fishing, wants to create a salmon river in the highlands of the Yemen. His unwavering belief and faith in the project gradually transforms the life of the English fisheries expert, Dr Alfred Jones, who is employed to help him.

The story appears to be a relatively gentle one, with the two main characters in relationships that are not working, finding themselves coming closer as the project carries on. It all seemed rather predictable and the only interest for me was the way in which the author lampooned the Western view of the Middle East and its policies. The crass idea for the TV quiz show whereby muslim villagers could win prizes like a dishwasher despite the fact their house has been levelled by military intervention was satirical and scarily possible.
The ending, however, pulls the finely woven rug from under your feet and was a quite unpredictable and down beat finale.

I found the way in which the narrative was told very difficult to maintain my interest. The story is told through diary entries, interviews, emails and official records, which offers a variety of styles and character insight but means that some of the ground is covered more than once and the level of description is unrealistic in interviews where just the facts would be required.

Film website

Please note there may be spoilers in the following if you have not seen the film -

The Film

The scriptwriter has done a brilliant job of converting all the letters and correspondence from the novel into a coherent and beautifully realised gentle British comedy. All the changes to the book work well. Casting Kirsten Scott Thomas as the female equivalent of the Peter Maxwell character (Political Public Relations) is a great choice and most of the comedy comes from her brow beating her political masters and her teenage children.
Of course the down beat ending was not going to happen on film - the PM and the Sheikh do not die in the flash flood, Robert has not been killed in Iran and Fred and Harriet decide to stay on together as partners in the Yemen to rebuild the project, rather than Fred returning to Mary and Harriet moving to France. I don't think this has a detrimental effect on the plot - it even adds a bit more in terms of character choices. The other change that works well, in terms of a message, is in the destruction of the project. Instead of the natural causes of a heavy rainstorm, we have political dissenters opening up the dam to deliberately scupper the Sheikh's plans. It is now the work of ignorant men and not the hand of God, which implied that all that belief and faith were for nothing.  
I did end up feeling sorry for the character of Mary, played by the lovely Rachael Stirling, however. In the book she is unfeeling, career driven and over-bearing towards her husband Alfred but I felt she was wronged and unloved in the film.

 Salmon Fishing in the Yemen - trailer