Chalkstreams, Environmental policy, Fly-fishing, Writing

Chalk Stream Fly Fishing: A 21st Century Anthology

Chalk Stream Fly Fishing

Eagerly anticipated is a term that probably gets overworked in the publishing business… but it really is true of the Salisbury & District Angling Club’s new addition to the chalkstreams’ literary canon.

As befits an anthology written by members of the most democratic club on the chalkstreams (well, almost) and edited by the eminent Graham Chalmers, this is a book that looks likely to set the tone of chalkstream fishing and thinking for at least the next hundred years.

So I’ve been particularly honoured to contribute Chalk Stream Fly Fishing’s concluding chapter: 7,000-and-something words of river-related futurology including wise water use, the limitations of our legal system, supranational environmental policy, ecosystem services, and native and non-native species. (Earlier chapters written by Malcolm Anderson, Cyril Bennett, Peter McLeod, Dennis Shaw and others are almost guaranteed to keep you awake, but a strong coffee might not go amiss before you try tackling this coda…)

Hardback copies priced at £28.95 can now be bought online, and a limited edition of 100 leather-bound collectors’ volumes, signed by all contributors, will be available for £180 at the official launch at Sportfish in Theale, between 4.00 and 5.30pm on 26 January 2013.