2011 1st edition. Departure Publishing. Austin, Texas. Ppxiv,186. B/w frontispiece illustration by Bob White. Light blue boards. Fine in dust- wrapper.
Notes: At "age 15, Martin 'Donny' Donovan left Testwood School in Southampton and set out on ten years of travelling the world, working at odd jobs and pining for a means of returning home to the chalkstreams where he fished and explored as a child. Through connections and persistence he eventually worked his way into the exclusive niche of riverkeeping and landed a job working the Nursling beats on the famed River Test. 'Keeper' is Donovan's rollicking account of his antics abroad and two decades of tending rivers, coddling fish and guiding anglers. What sets these stories apart is Donovan's wry voice and his bracing departure from the stereotypical English fly-fishing memoir. With equal measures of passion, irreverence, and hilarity, he does a masterful job with a traditional setting and an oddball cast of characters, props, and predicaments. He introduces us to gentrified English dry-fly purists and mobs of bait soaking carpers. He writes about prominent London lawyers, cantankerous skinheads, and booze-swilling farmers. While fly-fishing for trout and salmon are Donovan's favourite diversions, he also has a fixation with derelict motorbikes, chainsaw carpentry, hitch-hiking, canned beer, and curry houses. While some angling traditionalists may lament that all of the great stories have long-since been written about the English chalkstreams, we are proud to present an engaging and fresh new voice from the birthplace of flyfishing."
