THE FISHING HERE IS GREAT! A LIGHT-HEARTED DISCOURSE ON THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF ANGLING AS DEPICTED ON OLD POSTCARDS. By Derek Mills.

1985 1st edition. Square 4to (215 x 227mm). Pp159. B/w photographs, b/w and colour illustrations, bibliography. Black boards, spine titled in silver-gilt.

A social history of angling as seen through 175 photographic and illustrated postcards from around the world. Included at the end of the book is an index of card publishers, useful for the collector. "...there is no doubt that angling, like many sports, should have its own code of honour. Perhaps this code has been overlooked in the upsurge of popularity of angling - so a pause to reflect on how previous generations enjoyed the gentle art is worthwhile. We can of course do this by looking at the literature on the subject but our forbears unintentionally left us a more revealing record - a pictorial chronicle portrayed on postcards at a time when postcards were cheap, accessible and collectable commodity within the reach of Everyman and sent as readily as we nowadays pick up the telephone. Complemented by a narrative which draws extensively on the literature of the sport, the 175 postcards depicted in this book enable us to look at our angling past in all its aspects and may even help us to guide its future... [This book] provides a fascinating, light hearted discourse on the social history of angling. At the same time, it shows that there is more to fishing than the mere contest between man and fish and that anglers are compassionate people with a sense of responsibility for their natural heritage."