MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM. By G.E.M. Skues (Seaforth and Soforth). Flyfisher's Classic Library edition.

(1910) 1995 new edition. 8vo (160 x 240mm). Ppxiv,133. Colour plate. Quarter bound in dark red bonded leather over red cloth, gilt FFCL motif to upper board, spine titled in gilt, silk marker ribbon, marbled end-papers. Red cloth-bound slipcase. Edition limited to 750 copies.

"If one had to name a single book which changed the course of fly-fishing, this would probably be it. Published in 1910 when the cult of the dry fly had reached a high point, Minor Tactics threw a sensational spanner in the works. Skues was 53, a successful London solicitor and avid fly-fisher with a razor-keen mind. He refused to follow Mr Halford into the straitjacket of 'Dry Fly Only' practice. Instead Skues demonstrated that upstream nymph fishing for chalk stream trout was based on an old method, as sporting, as demanding and as interesting (if not more so) than fishing dry. The arguments have been smouldering ever since." (From the introduction by David Burnett).