FISHING THE DRY FLY. By Dermot Wilson.

(1970) 1974 reprint. 8vo (143 x 223mm). Ppxii,217. B/w photographs, illustrations. Blue-green boards, spine titled in gilt.

First published in 1957 under the title 'Dry-Fly Beginnings'". Dermot Wilson was 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 equally delightful and that leads on irresistibly . . . etc etc". In 1968 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 fishing gatherings". (From Sidney Vines' obituary of Wilson in the Independent newspaper). Dermot Needham Furnival Wilson, fly fisherman: born Cologne 1 June 1924; married 1947 Renee Balsom (one son); died Salisbury 10 January 1996.