Books Tell You Why, Inc.

John Swarbrick’s List as a miniature book, typeset and printed letterpress on handmade paper. Almost one description per page. Each pattern has been tied by Stuart Bowdin, photographed and reproduced in full color on fold out pages, with a mounted fly tied by Stuart Bowdin set inside the front and back boards; at the front is Large March Brown (No 5) and at the back is Small Black Flie (No 26). 260 copies of this standard edition have been jointly produced with the Fleece Press, half the edition bearing each publisher’s imprint, this copy with the Ken Smith Publishing imprint. Very Fine in marbled boards in cloth covered slipcase.

John Swarbrick, a farmer who lived in the hamlet of Austby, near the river Wharfe, wrote his manuscript list in 1807, not just a list of fly dressings but also a diary of natural events in and around the upper Wharfe. It was believed to be the earliest known list of artificial flies for that river. The list remained relatively unknown until it was printed as a small booklet exactly 100 years later in 1907 and very few copies of this list have survived; Miniature; 66 pages.