NYMPHS AND THE TROUT. By Frank Sawyer.

(1958) 1981 2nd edition reprint. 8vo (141 x 223mm). Pp272. Line drawings. Light green boards, spine titled in gilt.

"Frank Sawyer is well known as the keeper on a famous stretch of the Wiltshire Avon. He is also author, naturalist, broadcaster, and one of the very few people able to catch trout to the order of a television team. The result of forty years' close observation and constant practice is here set out in the most thorough, informative, and attractive manner." (Anglers' Annual 1958). This key book in the evolution of chalkstream flyfishing for trout and grayling also includes a chapter on "Lesser Quarry," on nymph fishing for chub, dace and roach; on "Experiments With Salmon"; and on "Still Waters"; and, of course, on river keeping. The second edition was completely revised and rewritten to take into account a further ten years' observation and practice with the upstream nymph. It is a great deal longer and also includes chapters on Chew and Blagdon, on fishing in Cornwall, Northern Ireland, Wales, Scotland and Bavaria. However, it had fewer photographs than the first edition. The 1979 and 1981 reprints of the second edition used inferior materials to the 1974 reprint, and the photographs were omitted entirely. Although they have A. and C. Black dust-wrappers and prices, and carry the same ISBN, I wonder if these printings may have been produced mainly for sale through the book clubs.