ONE MAN'S GUN QUEST. By Peter McManus.

ND (2005) 1st edition. 4to (205 x 250mm). Ppx,254. Colour and b/w photographs, illustrations, bibliography. Orange cloth, spine titled in gilt.

Peter McManus gives an autobiographical account of his fifty-year career as a gun collector, punctuated with chapters on important information he has uncovered on the way, and sketches of some of the characters he has met. Chapters include: The nineteenth century; Ernest A. Drury Smith, Derbyshire photographer; Money, money, money; Time; The collecting gene; In the beginning; Glan Clwyd Farm; The eccentric Billy Moore; Cockliffe Hill Farm; The war years and beyond; Peter and Wendy Dyson; Mountains and Mantons; Joseph and John Manton; Robert Held, firearms historian; Biggles - First World War aviation; Hares and Henry Beswick; W. Keith Neal; Purdeys; The collectors; The ones that got away; The art of the engraver and colour hardener; Twelve bore or twenty; Richard Ratner and Kit Ravenshear; Sid Bellamy; Forsyth; Pauly breech loaders; Derek Fearn, master gunsmith; A visit to the Birmingham Gun Quarter; The Joseph Manton pelletlock; Needlefire; Pinfire; J.F. Ewing's Holland and Holland; Shooting at Bisley; Scott motorcycles and gun trade; Peter Gavuzzi, Wilkinsons and the classic Rolls-Royce; Some special Mantons; Manton and Co., London and Calcutta; Exotica; Stalking rifles; The search for black powder express cartridges; Derek Fearn and the four fifty Purdey; Deanich Lodge 2003; Louie Bierman's remarkable MacNab.