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Fishing Wider Margins
By Paul Curtis
A high quality paperback with flaps.
Extent: 520 pages (130 in colour)
Size: 168mm x 240mm
Published and distributed by
Platanna Press
Read a Review
Platanna Press announces the launch of Paul Curtis's long-awaited new bibliography
and history of African sport fishing, Fishing Wider Margins. It is a book designed to be
of great interest not only to serious collectors of angling books and historians but also
to anyone who has a passion for fishing Africa's fresh and salt waters. Fishing Wider Margins is also stocked
by selected angling and book shops.
FOREWORD BY KEITH ELLIOTT
Lists of fishing books are generally pretty dull affairs – and I say that as a bibliophile.
If I need to check the publication date of Skues' Itchen Memories, know more
about a particular edition of The Compleat Angler or whether a Tales of Fishing Virgin
Seas by Zane Grey is truly a first edition, I know where to look.
But these reference books are not the ones you turn to for intellectual
stimulation. To send you to sleep, maybe – but not for entertainment, nor to enjoy the
pleasures of sparkling writing.
That's why Paul Curtis's Fishing Wider Margins is so refreshing. It's not a dull list of
book name, date published, number of pages and details of limited editions. Rather
than merely cataloguing, he has given the hundreds of works listed here an added
dimension and even (rarity among rarities in the bibliographical world) included
photographs.
Traditionalists may huff and puff. But seeing what a dust jacket looks like is
extremely useful. Finding out if your copy has its original binding rather than a later
addition affects not just value but aesthetics. And some of these early books conceal
some truly wonderful photographs.
 However, the real pleasure of Fishing Wider Margins is that it is far more than a
catalogue of books; it is the first history of fshing in Africa. The continent
has undergone huge turmoil, probably more so in
the past century than at any time. At one time, the
fshing was incredible, as a trawl through the books
here will show...
That's the pleasure of Fishing Wider Margins.
It sets things in context, reveals little gems about
the authors, relates anecdotes that lift these books
from a list of names and dates to a highly readable
addition to angling literature.
And for those who are of a collecting bent,
this will surely prove an invaluable companion.
As I write this, a 28-page pamphlet entitled
Trout Fishing In Natal has just sold at auction
for $1 800. Its owner was going to throw it
away because he thought it had no interest. Now,
wouldn't you like to find something like that?
Paul Curtis grew up in Port Elizabeth
and has been a fanatical fisherman
since his childhood. His mania for
reading and then collecting angling
books was a natural progression of
this fishing bug.
His serious collecting originally
focused on South African fly fishing
but gradually expanded into all
fishing books, about all types of
fishing, anywhere in Africa.
Paul has written, or collaborated
on, several fishing books published
by Platanna Press in South Africa.
He has also edited and project
managed several highly regarded
fishing books since he moved to the
UK in 2010.
He currently lives on a mountain
in Snowdonia, Wales, with his wife,
Ronni, and a labradoodle called Gus. |
