Author: Richard V. Gosset

Date of birth:
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Eli, Eel of Ely

SYNOPSIS
Little, if any, fiction is printed to celebrate the Life cycle of 'Anguila Anguila'......the Eel.
The same can also be said of non-fiction, which as far as my Library research allowed deals only in a limited way with their life style and life span, primarily I think because so little is actually known.
Some facts make the Eel somewhat Special.........They travel many years and many thousands of miles from their mysterious birthplace, through many stages of development to arrive at our and other shores as elvers.
They then travel up waterways to spend years growing, still developing and travelling overland if necessary to find fresh waters.
After a good many more years they are full-grown and eventually turn silver grey, their snouts and eyes changing in dimension yet again. This is the sure sign that they are ready to return to the Sea, the Sargasso Sea, to spawn and die.
SO TO THE NOVEL.........
I have written a book, which takes a small band of such Eels and tracks their development and adventures.
They take their names from the first letter of the first place name that their journey inland brings them to......In this case it was Ely.
Therefore the band of Eli, Elizabeth, Eril, Eric and Musco find themselves succumbing to the insistent and opposing energy of the river to finally rest in a stretch of a canal that allows them the time to snack at leisure and recover their energies in the stiller waters.
Musco! Not a typographical error but a problem they eventually realise is an issue after they meet up with Tailer, an Eel of some age and his adopted friend Tad, who found himself separated from his friends without even a name....Tailer named him after Ten Mile Bank which was his own 'first' place. It was then that he educated the others on the Special way that they got their names. Tailer was so old that he knew most of the names of all water life, both animal and plant together with a lot of real and some guessed at detail about above the water's surface, all of which he passed on to the others making them extraordinarily learned for Eels so young, making their journeys much more rewarding.
They happened to meet with Tailer and Tad after being trapped by a canal lock and making it through to the other side as it opened to let the fearsome boat out.
It was then that they realised that Musco had not made it through. They were not even sure that he was trapped at all and may still be on the riverside of the lockgates.
Now landlocked, with the steep sides of the canal not allowing escape, as Tailer could vouch for as he had been trapped for years himself, their vowed aim remained though to somehow journey back to the other side to reunite with their dear friend Musco.........Their daily duty was to search for a wayâ€¦only nature stood in their way !

There is always a way !