FLY FISHING BY J.R. HARTLEY: MEMORIES OF ANGLING DAYS.

1991 1st edition. 8vo (141 x 222mm). Pp127. B/w illustrations by Patrick Benson. Brown cloth.

Deservedly, the most famous British fly fishing autobiography. "Here are his elusive fishing recollections told in a series of sometimes vividly comic chronological cameos - from Yorkshire schooldays in the early 1930's, through memorable outings on chalk stream, spate river and loch, to a startling conclusion half a lifetime later on a Scottish summer night. ...Will appeal to everyone, even [especially?] those who have never held a rod". And all who remember that advert. "In the Yellow Pages TV advert, first shown in 1983, he was seen phoning second-hand bookshops in pursuit of a copy of Fly Fishing by J.R. Hartley. The payoff came when he tracked down a copy, asking for it to be reserved and revealed that he was the author." Daily Mail obituary for Norman Lumsden 30-11-2001. Norman Lumsden played the author in the TV advertisement. It was so popular that writers Russell and Lapsley were commissioned to provide a text for this, up-to-then fictitious, book.