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

Mills (Derek).

ISBN 10: 0002181770 / ISBN 13: 9780002181778

Published by Willow Books. London and Glasgow. 1985, 1985

About this Item

ALL UK PARCELS SENT TRACKED! ALL OVERSEAS PARCELS SENT AIRMAIL, TRACKED! (S/hand, Hardcover, 1985). 1985 1st edition. Square 4to (215 x 227mm). Pp159. B/w photographs, b/w & colour illustrations, bibliography. Black boards, spine titled in silver-gilt. Very good in slightly used dust-wrapper. 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." .

Seller Inventory # 6644

Bibliographic Details

• Title: THE FISHING HERE IS GREAT! A LIGHT-HEARTED DISCOURSE ON THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF ANGLING AS DEPICTED ON OLD POSTCARDS. By Derek Mills.
• Publisher: Willow Books. London and Glasgow. 1985
• Publication Date: 1985
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0002181770
• ISBN 13: 9780002181778
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition

About this title

Reviews

The illustrations are more interesting than the text in this British import. Mills, a zoologist and editor of a fisheries management magazine, has dredged up every fishing cliche one can think of: the tale of the big one that got away, the purchase made from the local fish store to deceive family members about the angler's prowess, the assertion that fishing provides an excuse for drinking, the fervent hope of malcontents that the fish will pull the fisherman to an aqueous end. The illustrations are all postcards of the last 100 years, adorned either with photographs, oil paintings or cartoons; most entertaining are the joke postcards, though the humor is rather quaint. There are chapters on fishing sites, appropriate garb, fisherwomen, changing styles in equipment. The book is a less than satisfying documentary of the sport.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Mills provides a discursive history of freshwater sport fishing, primarily in the United Kingdom, through discussions of and excerpts from an assortment of older authors. Illustrated largely with antique postcards, the book is appreciative of the humor in angling situations and also covers such neglected fishing topics as the role of women in the sport. Careful, articulate, and biographical, this pleasant book really belongs in only those libraries collecting comprehensively in the subject. David J. Panciera, Westerly P.L.,
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.