Fly Fishing Memories by J.R. Hartley has been defined the sports book of the year by The Times of London and one of the funniest things one could ever read by the Daily Telegraph. When Fly Fishing Memories was published in Great Britain in 1991, critics rejoiced over these dotty vignettes of angling days in the English countryside. The book rose to the top of the British bestseller list and stayed there for weeks.

Now readers on this side of the Atlantic can make the acquaintance of the elusive J.R. Hartley and enjoy his recollections of Yorkshire schooldays in the 1930s; memorable outings on chalk stream, spate river, and loch; as well as, at the book's close, a startling episode half a lifetime later on a Scottish summer night.

Fly Fishing Memories by J.R. Hartley is complemented by Patrick Benson's evocative illustrations, J.R. Hartley creel brims with anecdote and lore. But even those who have never held a rod will warm to this story of the ultimate reluctant hero. J.R. Hartley's identity may be open to question, but his memoirs are as authentic as example as one will find of why there will always be an England.