Paul Torday

Paul Torday is a British writer and the author of the comic novel, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. The book was the winner of the 2007 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for comic writing and was serialised on BBC Radio 4. It won the Waverton Good Read Award in 2008.

Born in 1946 and educated at Pembroke College, Oxford, Torday only turned to fiction-writing later in life, and his first novel was published at the age of 59. Prior to that he was a successful businessman living in Northumberland. The inspiration for the novel stemmed from Torday's interest in both fly fishing and the Middle East. From these two strands, he weaves a political satire that centres around the world of political spin management.