THE wand is a fly rod, key to Brian Belshaw's great passion of fly fishing for trout. Here, the retired Hartlepudlian journalist brings together a selection of pieces written for magazines, celebrating what he calls "the infinite delights and enchantments"
of the fly-fisher's art. His own description of the collection as "a simple record of events, thoughts and conclusions", doesn't do justice to either the contents, which include profiles of characters and rivers, or the quality of his writing, which nicely conveys the feeling of days on, or usually in, the river without any striving for effect.
His local Cod Beck (unfortunately not named), Cleveland's Leven, and Dales' rivers figure strongly, and there are excursions to the Test and Scottish lochs. The collection is a cut-above most self-published reminiscences, and Brian's readers will be glad that "Hartlepool, with all its excellent opportunities for sea fishing from boats, breakwaters and beaches, failed to win me as a salt-water fisherman"
* the author, Tan House, Borrowby, Thirsk, YO7 4QL, Tel: 01845-537245, £7.
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