Fishing the Dry Fly

A & C Black Publishers Ltd, 1974. Hardcover. Very Good/No dustjacket. 0x0x0. Signed by Author. Inscribed "Good Luck, Dermot Wilson" on first blank page. This title was orgiganally published in the UK in 1957 under the title "Dry-Fly Beginnings", the author (died 1996) - an well-known British Angler - introduces the reader to the important considerations of dry-fly fishing: the fish, its environment, instincts, food and feeding habits. This book has been long recognized as one of the finest introductions to the delights and problems of dry-fly fishing. the leading authority in the UK on dry fly fishing, particularly in the chalk streams. The poet Ted Hughes wrote of Wilson's book Fishing the Dry Fly: "Wherever I open it my eye alights on a paragraph that is delightful to read, and that leads on irresistibly to the next paragraph that is he set up a mail-order tackle business, the first of its kind, at Nether Wallop, Hampshire, supplying a full range of fly-fishing tackle. It gave an extraordinarily good service. If you ordered flies from Dermot Wilson, they arrived in the post next day. The company grew to employ a staff of 14, many of them friends from his Greenjacket days. In 1981, ill-health caused him to give up, and the business was sold to the US company Orvis, who still run it successfully. Wilson was for some years Chairman of the Anglers Co-operative Association, which combats pollution of the rivers. He set up the Water Resources Board of the Salmon and Trout Association. He wrote for Country Life and the Field and was a popular lecturer at Independent newspaper. Signed copies rarely offered.