The recreations mentioned in Victor Canning's Who's Who? entries have interesting links to the books he was writing.
| 1956 | sailing tennis poultry-keeping | Sailing features in the 1952 novel House of the Seven Flies. |
| 1958 | golf carnation-growing poultry-keeping | Golf features in The Limbo Line (1963). |
| 1960 | golf carnation-growing | |
| 1962 | golf carnation-growing | |
| 1964 | golf | |
| 1966 | golf | |
| 1968 | golf | |
| 1970 | fishing golf | Fishing figures prominently in Firecrest (1971) and several later books, including Birdcage (1978) and The Boy on Platform One (1981). |
| 1972 | fishing golf |
His 1970 entry gives "Flyfishers" as his only club in that and subsequent editions until his death in 1986.