Market Finds No 18

A run on reading matter over the last few weeks - as per usual, the most expensive for the cost of a pint (and not your inflated London pints at that!). The norm is around a pound or two, sometimes less.

All of these were found in the book town of Hay on Wye in the cheaper less frequented back passages and nooks on our recent holiday jaunt. I was particularly pleased with Going Fishing (letters to a brother angler - 1925 Arrowsmith). I cannot speak highly enough of this book and to find two copies in one day is quite something. I was only recently recommended the book after leafing through friend Ferney's copy and took an instant liking to it. Some things are meant to be. Such lovely chapters as: A Norfolk Mill Pool, My Favourite Spot, Winter Roach, Catching and Cooking, Two Chubs and Another, The Verb to Stret-Peg, A Hint and some Animadversions, The Sixteenth, Sultry Days. The list of enticing chapters goes on and it is a superb read.

I have no intention of ever going trout fishing in the streams of Natal (signed presentation copy from the author Neville Nuttall), but who could resist a book with such a splendid jacket for £2? Not I.

England Parish Churches by Edwin Smith and Olive Cook just continues to fuel my passion for the country church and a superb guide to Canterbury Cathedral by Rena Gardiner for 50p. You can do no wrong with a Puffin Picture Book, especially if SR Badmin is involved and I need not tell you what a delight Follies, Grottos and Garden Buildings is.........splendid!