POLES APART: THE HISTORY OF THE LONDON ROACH POLE. By Michael Nadell. De luxe leather-bound edition.

2013 1st edition. Large 4to. Pp258. Colour photographs throughout, fold-out plate at rear. Full brown leather with dark brown blocking. Brown cloth slip-case.

"Michael Nadell's excellent book on poles and their history evokes all the memories with none of the downside. He recreates that golden age when trains from London stopped to disgorge a mass of anglers every Sunday at stations like Shiplake and Datchet, Pangbourne and Goring, travelling at special rates for fishermen. Later on, the same process would take place bycoach, and many of those alive today will recall the Sunday coach expeditions. Nobody knew what boilies were, river matches attracted hundreds and football was a minority sport compared to fishing. At the heart of this was the pole. We will never see the like again, of course. But if you want to taste those great days of the men and the London rivers and the times when the pole reigned supreme, Poles Apart tells it all". (Keith Elliott in Classic Angling magazine). This is the very handsomely bound de luxe edition, limited to 35 copies (only 30 for sale), each signed and numbered by the author.