By Bernard Venables
George Allen & Unwin LTD, London 1958
Described as “The modern counterpart to Izaak Walton’s The Compleat Angler, this beautifully illustrated book from one of angling’s great fishermen and authors “combines in one volume the whole practice and delight of angling”.
It was bought in a bookshop in Kinsale, Ireland, by my late father, and has a signed letter from Bernard Venables himself saying:
“Dear Sandy, It cannot have escaped you that I have published a new book. You may indeed be sick of the sound of it, but just in case this is not so, that you would be interested in it, I am sending you this copy. I hope very much indeed that you will like it, and that it will measure up sufficiently well to your penetrating scrutiny. Yours ever, Bernard”
Old books and tackle fascinate me. There are stories within stories, the journey that the object in question has taken to end up in the hands of its current owner. We are guardians of these things, not owners, and this book will exist long after I have stopped fishing on this world. I am very glad that I am its current minder.