Itchen Memories: 1 - Tapa dura

More than a mere collection of fishy tales and of days long past spent pottering beside the river, Itchen Memories concerns just one very special stretch of this lovely chalk stream in Hampshire. For centuries Abbotts Barton, the Itchen's watery maze of carriers, ditches and drains that criss-cross Winchester's northern water-meadow, has delighted both angler and trout alike. In Itchen Memories, G.E.M. Skues, the greatest innovative angler of modern times, lovingly describes the people, the wildlife, the setting, and his encounters with the fish in the place known as the very cradle of modern-day fly-fishing. A classic of twentieth-century angling literature, Itchen Memories conveys a true passion for fly-fishing in a way that will be appreciated not only by anglers, but also by those who wish to experience the untroubled beauty of England's countryside between the wars, viewed through the eyes of a naturally gifted writer. Now completely reset and beautifully presented with the original line drawings by Alex Jardine, Itchen Memories also features an introduction by Roy Darlington, long-time admirer of G.E.M. Skues and formerly lease-holder of the Abbotts Barton Fishery.

The legendary G.E.M. Skues was the greatest innovative angler of modern times. Author of the seminal Minor Tactics of the Chalk Stream, The Way of the Trout with a Fly,and Nymph Fishing for Chalk Stream Trout, he also had published posthumously in 1951, Itchen Memories. In an altogether more reflective and anecdotal volume Skues describes memories of over fifty years' angling on his beloved Abbotts Barton Fishery. Itchen Memoriesbeautifully evokes the time and place and gives a rare insight to the 'master' himself.