This delightful book records a year in the life of an essentially English waterscape, one that is home to a vast array of wildlife and natural habitat of the keen angler – the chalkstream.

Shortlisted for THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE 2017‘The best popular account of the lives of otters written so far’ Richard Shelton, Times Literary Supplement

F.M. Halford and the Dry-Fly Revolution is the first full-length biography of the man who did more that anyone to codify and popularize the doctrine of the dry fly on chalk streams. By the end of his life, with the publication of seven books and over 200 articles, the name of Halford had come to be known in all parts of the world where fly fishing for trout was practised. Today his name is still recognized worldwide as being synonymous with the fishing of the dry fly. Tony Hayter is the only author to have been given access to the family papers, including Halford's angling journals, and has thus been able to produce a work of original research. The book also sets the historical context in which Halford lived, follows him through his unusual career, considers the influence upon him of other major figures of the era such as Marryat, Hall and Sanctuary, and discusses why Halford has often been misunderstood and criticized since his death. This book which contains many previously unseen illustrations makes a substantial contribution to angling history. Packed with anecdote, incident and newly unearthed detail, through which runs a strong narrative thread, F.M. seriously interested in angling.

A book of evocative and atmospheric photographs taken by Dick Hawkes to create a representative record of this precious and ecologically unique habitat - before much of it is lost to the many threats it faces. Chalk streams have been described as England's "rainforest". Around 85% of the world's chalk streams are in England. They are beautiful, biologically distinct and amazingly rich in wildlife, but are under threat from man-made issues of abstraction, pollution from chemicals and effluent, development for housing, and climate change. Included in the book are images of typical habitats and species of wildlife found in chalk streams and water meadows, highlighting those that are rare or most under threat.

At age fifteen, Martin "Donny" Donovan graduated from Testwood School in Southampton, England and set out on a ten-year odyssey of traveling the world, working odd jobs, and pining for an eventual means of returning home to the chalkstreams where he fished and explored as a child.Through connections and persistence he eventually worked his way into the exclusive niche of riverkeeping and landed a job working the Nursling beats on the famed River Test.Keeper, is Donovan's rollicking account of his antics abroad, and two decades of tending rivers, coddling fish, and guiding anglers. His stories are exceptional, but what ultimately sets them apart is Donovan's wry voice and his bracing departure from the stereotypical English fly-fishing memoir.With equal measures of passion, irreverence, and hilarity, he does a masterful job of salting a traditional setting with an oddball cast of characters, props, and predicaments. He introduces us to gentried English dry-fly purists and mobs of bait soaking carp-catchers. He writes about prominent London attorneys, cantankerous skinheads, redneck clock peddlers, and booze-swilling farmers. While fly-fishing for trout and salmon are Donovan's beloved diversions, he also has an eclectic fixation with derelict motorbikes, chainsaw carpentry, hitchhiking, canned beer, and curry houses.While some angling traditionalists may lament that all of the great stories have long-since been written about the English chalkstreams, we are proud to present an engaging addendum and a fresh new voice from the birthplace of fly fishing.

In this work, Charles Ritz reflects on rods, lines and other tackle as well as his famous method of fly-casting - High Speed, High Line - which is described in detail. The book is enriched with his reminiscences from the finest game-fishing waters of Europe and North America.