Bøger udgivet af Merlin Unwin Books

There has long been a divide between flyfishing and coarse fishing - but there is no reason for it! Over 3 million people in Britain fish one way or the other - and there is growing interest in combining these two major areas of the sport.* Existing flyfishers looking for a fresh challenge are already exploringthe fun and fresh possibilities of new species.* Coarse anglers are discovering the advantages of catching theirfavourite species in this exciting and intimate way.The reasons are simple enough: virtually any fish will take a fly, you can see it 'as it happens' and the fight of a fish on a flyrod is nothing short of sensational.This book shows you how to flyfish for each different species: the techniques, the flies, the tackle.Flyfishing for Coarse Fish will appeal to:* fly and coarse fishers wanting to try something new.* those wanting to introduce coarse fishing youngsters to the artof flyfishing, at a fraction of the cost.* those living in areas where flyfishing would not other wise beavailable, or at such an affordable price.

Set against the dramatic backdrop of the Pennines, Catlow's shooting diary records his year as an amateur pheasant rearer, gamekeeper, forester, dog-handler and all-round shooting enthusiast. But he also records his thoughts as he goes around his small shoot: his views on the right to roam, on why he loves the birds he shoots, his wine cellar, his other sporting interests. He airs his opinions on subjects as diverse as sport and the nanny state, game cookery, friendship, disobedient dogs and beloved hats.Interspersed with pheasant shooting are magical evenings duck flighting and expeditions rabbit shooting. He controls vermin such as mink, crows and foxes - all familiar activities to those who run small shoots.Catlow is shooting's most articulate exponent and this is an intelligent, funny and thought-provoking book.

In spring 1973, Michael Brown, a young freelance travel writer, took a phone call from a friend: 'Why don't you come down to Somerset and see these things called elvers - they migrate up river at night on the high tides and the local's fish for them. It's called elvering.'And so began a lifetime's career, full of ups and downs, as a self- employed eel fisherman: from the enchantment of catching them by moonlight, to driving them in battered vans across Europe, to smoking mature eels, to selling them - Michael and his long-suffering wife Utta have never looked back.A heart-warming tale of running a small business on a shoe-string; and a passion for eels which never faded.

After three years working as a young vet in rural Aberdeenshire, Hugh Cran decided that it was time for a change. He got it. He took a post in Kenya and, forty years later, he's still there, still working, still loving every exasperating, challenging, unexpected moment.This is a page-turning account of working as a vet at the sharp end.Cattle owned by the Maasai herdsmen or the white settlers might take up most of Hugh's time, but these cattle are assailed by lightning strike, snake bites, disease passed on by zebra and wildebeest. He's up against sun cancer, witch doctors - who knows what to expect next?Travelling miles on rough roads, Hugh never knows if he will be performing surgery on dirty sacks, besieged by every species of Kenyan insect, by the light of a failing car-headlamp!But the colourful people who frequent Hugh's Nukuru practice, the sheer vitality of the Kenyan scene and the rewarding nature of the grinding task in hand, keep him answering that persistent phone, day and night, and heading off into the unknown.

Ludlow, Shropshire, is perhaps best known today for its gourmet restaurants, its famous Food Festival and its attractive Georgian and medieval market town centre.But it has a less glorious claim to fame: the working classes of Ludlow lagged far behind much of the country when it came to their living conditions and, from Victorian times to the middle of the 20th century, many lacked most of the basic comforts. Disease, especially TB, was rife, countless houses had no access to running water, and outside toilets were shared by several families. When it is remembered that Ludlow's poor households often numbered eight or more residents, the degree of deprivation becomes clearer. Yet Ludlow's working classes battled on, largely uncomplainingly, until the local council finally agreed reluctantly to building the minimum number of council houses they could get away with.This is a clear-sighted, well presented and fascinating account of the everyday lives of those living on the 'other' side of Ludlow.

Working at the sharp end, Scottish vet Hugh Cran describes his daily and nightly challenges working in Kenya as he encounters rabid dogs, a horse pageant that goes horribly wrong, missing tortoises, entire herds of sick cattle and corrupt policemen: he even witnesses how a witchdoctor successfully identifies a thief. Busy from early morning to midnight, Hugh never turns down a call to help an animal in distress, even if this means driving across floods or deserts, surviving vehicle break-downs or insanitary operating conditions on arrival. In this book, Hugh falls in love, marries and starts a family, climbs Kenyan mountains, survives a life-threatening health crisis, a surgery fire and a serious legal accusation.Throughout it all, he remains a dedicated and hardworking local vet, serving his African community, no matter what.He has promises to keep...

You want your home, your clothes and your car to be really clean.You don't want to put harmful chemicals down the drains, nor to breathe them indoors.And maybe you would like to save money at the same time, and to enjoy the creative satisfaction of making your own simple cleaning agents.Not only does Austrian author Manfred Neuhold tell you what works, he explains in plain English WHY it works. Which means you can clean betterHere are 160 easy, illustrated recipes to inspire you to make all your own basic cleaning products such as: washing up liquids rinse aids fabric conditioners toilet cleaners dishwasher powdersAnd the specialist stuff: anti-flea carpet cleaner wine stain remover car air fresheners anti-mist window and mirror cleaners sweat-mark removers car seat cleaners rust removers lingerie handwash liquid

In this clear and attractive book are all the essential skills you need to be a competent all-round flyfisher.With John Symonds you will learn how to fish for trout and salmon in stillwaters from both bank and boat; in rivers; dry fly and wet fly. You will know how to tie reliable and easy knots, to construct the right leaders, learn where the fish are most likely to lie, how to cast to them and which flies to use. How to Flyfish will bring you up-to-date with all the latest on leader construction and knots, boat control with the paradrogue, traditional nymphing methods to the popular tenkara style.Packed with useful tips and clear diagrams.

In December 2002, Meryl Harrison moved a large audience to tears at the BBC Animal Awards Ceremony, having been flown over from her native Zimbabwe to receive their Special Award. There she told her tale of the rescue of countless animals caught up in five years of the Zimbabwean land invasions, as farmers and families were forced from their homes to make way for Mugabe's 'war veterans'. Many had to leave their animals behind, and it was Meryl's mission on behalf of the under-funded ZNSPCA to go into these destroyed farmsteads to rescue countless domestic animals and wounded livestock.Nandi, pictured on the book-jacket of this heart-warming account of her animal rescues, is just one of the many ordinary pet dogs she managed to save.The bravery of Meryl and her small team, as they overcame huge obstacles to find and return these traumatised pets to their loving owners, has earned her world-renown. But she didn't do it for any human praise - she did it for the animals, the innocent victims of human folly.

Falling truly, madly, deeply in love with one animal after another was a recurrent theme of the author's childhood, actively encouraged by her beautiful, impetuous mother as she single-handedly held the family together during the war's darkest days.While her husband's regiment battled through the Tunisian desert to Italy and Austria, she criss-crossed beleaguered Britain with children, ration books, and an unwieldy train of rabbits, dogs, cats and ponies, dreaming of land of her own.But farming can't be learned overnight, and translated into the reality of 400 acres of hilly, rain-lashed Radnorshire, that dream became a challenge for all ranks. Dragooned into acting as unskilled, unpaid labour for jobs that would make today's Health-and-Safety freaks blench - burning rushes, driving tractors, riding on Land-Rover bonnets and towering haywains - the children came to look on boarding-school as a rest-cure, though they retain from those days of carefree, unregulated farm life a treasure-house of memories.This elegant memoir, told with disarming honesty and gentle humour, follows the development of a lively, headstrong, self-effacing young girl into womanhood.

Few people hunting today are fully aware of the history of their sport. Accounts of the subject can be somewhat dry and academic. So, in an easy and entertaining manner, here is a concise summary of how this much-misunderstood sport has survived and flourished through centuries of change, to the benefit of the fox and its environment. Concise chapters gallop through the history of hunting from 1066to the present day, interspersed with snippets of hunting verseand song Index of foxhunting packs in the UK, Ireland and North America Specially-commissioned line illustrations of hunting scenes byAlastair JacksonHunting is a sport with not only a colourful history, but also a promising future. The next generation still responds with great enthusiasm and commitment to the appeal of foxhunting, providing eager recruits each season to the hunting field.This book will appeal to social historians and all who hunt today.

Many smallholders have plunged in at the deep end and learnt the hard way, through experience. But Phyllida Barstow, author of the childhood autobiography My Animals and Other Family, was already involved in animal husbandry when, as a young woman, she embarked on her own smallholding enterprise. Here is her lively, informative and witty account of her first-hand experience throughout her lifetime in Gloucestershire, with chickens, dogs, cats, horses, sheep, peacocks, alpacas and even honey bees.As she points out, smallholding is not a summer idyll but, truly, a job for all seasons, all hours, all weathers. She also has to deal with fallen stock, pest control, disease outbreaks and slaughter. Her tips include those on animal handling, training, breeding and delivery. Her wry and practical attitude towards her animals is imbued with respect and often affection for her charges.This account of the realities of modern smallholding is both entertaining and informative.

Follow these simple instructions and your puppy should develop into a delightful, obedient and devoted member of your family. He will bring you great companionship and happiness for many years to come.There are many puppy-training books available today, but none so clear and coherent as this one. There is a strong logic to Fiona Baird's method which gives confidence to both owner and puppy. She makes training fun, simple and very straightforward.Fiona Baird has trained countless puppies professionally, and has many devoted clients. She truly is the Mary Poppins of puppy training.

Michael Clayton has enjoyed a fascinating career as a professional journalist on Fleet Street - but the highlight of his career was his work as a editor and journalist in the field of horses, and with hunting horses in particular.This is his autobiography in horses: his boyhood work in local stables, his first post as a cub reporter, leading eventually to his appointment as editor of Horse and Hound magazine.Here he talks frankly about his involvement with the Royal family and their horses, his roving hunting brief, the development of new safety standards in riding, and all the key characters of the equine world whom he got to know first-hand. He worked as a reporter of horse-racing, show-jumping, carriage driving (disastrous!) and with almost all the hunts of Britain, Ireland and the USA. Michael also recalls the time of the hunting ban, among other key moments.His account, with photographs, is witty, incisive, pacey and very frank.

This is the golden age of bullfighting. In the last 60 years, the number of bullfights (corridas) held in Spain has increased almost ninefold, peaking in 2007. Great bullfighting names have the status of football stars, with heroes including Cayetano, Jose Tomas, Enrique Ponce and Morante de la Puebla, their styles ranging from the flamboyant and breath-takingly reckless to calm domination and technical mastery.Many English-speaking tourists on holiday witness this most ancient and colourful of spectacles, but few understand what is really going on.This illustrated guide acknowledges that attending a bullfight is controversial and will not appeal to everyone. It throws light on the bullfighter's art and outlines the structure of the corrida, the key players and the various moves and stages.A fascinating and complex event is defined step-by-step in layman's terms. The music, the excitement and reactions of the crowd and the drama are all put into context and one of the most ancient and unusual of modern spectacles becomes clear.This book is designed to give readers of whatever persuasion an understanding of bullfighting, so that they can either increase their pleasure in watching a corrida in Spain, France or South America, or simply learn what is involved in this most complex, moving and controversial of spectacles.

John Cowan is headkeeper on a large Scottish estate, and has worked as a gamekeeper all his life. In this new book, he passes on everything he knows about the profession he loves.The book is crammed with fascinating practical advice - but it is also a very entertaining read for anyone interested in the day-to-day challenges and joys of running a busy sporting estate.It can be read for its countless tips and gamekeeping wisdom, or simply for pleasure, for the unique insight into the hard-working but rewarding life of the modern gamekeeper.With informative drawings of traps and snares by Roger Penwill and classic wildlife illustrations from C.F. Tunnicliffe.

With hundreds of miles of underfished water, canals represent a vast, untapped fishing resource. From shallow, secluded rural waters to giant urban ship channels, they offer a staggering diversity of angling potential which is open and affordable to all.Britain's canals have never been in better shape, with a huge range of species to target. From classic roach fishing to specimen carp, pike and increasingly common surprises like chub and zander, this book covers everything from traditional to ultra-modern techniques.This is more than just a 'how to' volume. With details of venues and notable fish records from every part of the UK, this book also represents an essential guide to Britain's canals. Whether you're planning a short break or looking for a fresh challenge on your local 'Cut', Dominic Garnett's book is packed with inspiring ideas, beautiful photography and invaluable information.

Carp are the big game of the inland angler, and in this book 'BB' tells of some of his experiences with this very sporting fish, how they may be caught or at any rate hooked, and what is the particular charm of their pursuit. He has included the fascinating stories of other people who have brought specimen carp to the bank.BB's readers will know that he was an expert fisherman and that he has, beyond his great technical knowledge and experience, the power to communicate the meditative atmosphere which has accompanied the art since Walton's days. 'Carping' takes place in warm, summer weather and usually in lovely lily-strewn waters. The author's gift of descriptive writing has seldom been better displayed.First published in 1950, and instantly beloved by fisherman, whether they fish for carp or not, Confessions of a Carp Fisher is a much prized addition to any fishing library.This reprint features an updated look including new jacket artwork and a foreword by Chris Yates who explains why, half a century after it was first published, BB's advice about carp and carp fishing are as fresh and fascinating as ever.The illustrations by Denys Watkins-Pitchford are some of the finest examples of his scraperboard art.

International multi-millionaire trader Hansi Hartzog has bought Dunmorse Hall, jewel in the crown of the Starcliffe valley, and he's improved the shoot, brought in new money and generally shaken things up.But not all the locals approve of the changes. They can't walk in the woods, dead vermin adorn the fences and there are grumbles about over-production of game birds. There are boundary disputes, rumours of affairs and unsettling co-incidences.Here is a community in flux: eastern european farm workers, poachers, badger culls, TB testing, in-comers and old-school locals, financial and emotional tensions. Hansi organises an ambitious charity High Flyers Day raffle for which the winner can invite seven guests to shoot on donated drives at four different local shoots.But on the day, a shocking death rocks the village. Can DCI Robb, recently widowed and recovering from injury, solve the crime before more damage is done?

Liam Mulvin loves his job as a country postman. For decades he has crossed farmyards, fields and hills to deliver the mail to his appreciative rural customers.Liam shares here, in a series of short essays, the country characters he comes across, the unexpected dilemmas and dramas he encounters as he goes about his work. He muses about the unusual wildlife behaviour he observes, he battles with the weather - and he delivers the mail, come what may.This is a refreshing celebration of a rural community which functions best when knitted together by those cheerful workers, like Liam, who go that extra mile.

Edward Miller has been running a successful B&B enterprise in a peaceful part of the Lake District for over 25 years. Here he tells his story of how it came about and how he learned through trial and error to not only make a decent profit out of it, but to enjoy (nearly) every minute of it.The book is full of incidents, some beyond belief, others rib-tickling or just plain bizarre. But it is also full of practical advice and tips, all of them summarised at the end of each chapter.With cartoons by Robin Grenville Evans.

Roger Evans, Britain's favourite dairy farmer, is back with his popular diary telling his fans about his farm, his dogs, his daily ups and downs and his views on everything from the characters in his local pub to the price of milk. This new volume is as witty and entertaining as ever.Roger Evans writes a popular farming column in the Western Daily Press every Saturday and well as being a regular contributor to The Diary Farmer,Cow Management and Veterinary Times.He's a past winner of the Dairy Ambassador of the Year Cream Awards and his books have sold over 30,000 copies.

This powerful and beautifully-written account is the memoir of Patricia Nolan who lived in a tiny community in Cumbria and it captures the end of an era in the 1950s.'When the first organ-transplant was taking place, when computers were starting to revolutionise our lives and television was arriving in the sitting-rooms of Britain, in my house we were still dipping buckets into a stream to make a cup of tea and going to bed by candlelight,' she writes.The tale covers three years of the author's life, made particularly vivid by a traumatic event which opens the book, but which goes on to depict a poor but close rural community with its village school, its annual country show, its Christmas celebrations and its local characters - all set against the dramatic back-drop of Scafell and the surrounding hills and moors on which she and her friends ran free.

James Batty seldom ventures further than 20 miles from his Cornish home. He fishes from the rocks and beaches in a handful of places and that is enough for him. Generous with his knowledge and full of fresh ideas, Batty catches bass with lures, flies and bait. It's a myth, he says, that you need expensive gear - he beaches plenty of big bass yet is a tackle skinflint. He loves to fish in those pre-dawn hours beloved of insomniacs, when the tide brings the big feeding bass close in to the shore. The book's real focus is on understanding bass behaviour, then using that understanding to work out the place, time and method. Some bass-fishers obsess over conditions - too flat, too rough, too something. James Batty offers ideas as to how to catch bass in any weather or sea-state.His book isn't just about the hows-and-whys of bass fishing, it is a wry look at life and it will make the reader laugh - a lot.

Tom Fort, former angling correspondent for the Financial Times, is one of the most incisive and funny fishing writers in Britain today.This sparkling collection of his writings finds Tom at Ceausescu's bear-hunting lodge in Romania, at a fishing auction in the Home Counties, being thwarted by a bunch of hard-mouthed Brazilian dourado, on a press freebie in Scotland and in a terrible state on the Kennet - not to mention conducting a fantasy celebrity interview with Isaak Walton himself.Whether fishing in some exotic far-flung location, or simply leaning over the parapet of an English bridge gazing at the stream below, Tom Fort always manages in his stylish and witty way to pinpoint something important with which all anglers can identify.

Man has been fishing for trout and salmon with the fly since the time of the Ancient Greeks. Devising ever more ingenious methods of doing so, his rods, reels, lines and flies have evolved in fascinating ways.With a delightful blend of wit and erudition, Conrad Voss Bark tells the story of flyfishing, from the Macedonian 'plumes' of old to the hairwing streamers of today.He spotlights the sport's formative protagonists - Juliana Berners, Robert Venables, Isaak Walton, Charles Cotton, Alfred Ronalds, George Kelson, J.C. Mottram, Dr Bell, and many others, using his journalist's skills to appraise the prevailing dogmas, the breakthroughs in tackle and to re-live the great debates and controversies, including the famous Skues-Halford dispute.Throughout, flyfishing is seen against the broader canvas of changing times in Britain, Ireland and North America.Today there are new forces which are shaping flyfishing history: water pollution, drift netting, over-kill, timeshare, catch-and-release and the explosion of new materials from which tackle and flies are made.Not since Waller Hills' classic History of Flyfishing for Trout of 1921, has a broad survey of this fascinating sport been tackled with such individual style and verve.

The dry fly has long presented a design challenge to the angler. In the early 1900s, the best fishing minds, most prominently Halford, applied themselves to creating perfect replicas of the natural insect which would sit high on the water surface. Then came Colonel Harding and his watertank. This lead to the theory that trout do not see flies as we do: therefore dry flies should be tied to create the right impression, as seen from a trout's underwater perspective. At different times in history, the arguments have raged: colour and shape have gone in and out of fashion, the importance of outlines and silhouettes have waxed and waned. New ideas have embraced attempts to hide the hook, to turn the fly upside-down, to make it always land the right way up, to suggest 'ghost wings', to make it unsinkable, and so on. Men like Halford, Harding, Skues, Lunn, Marinaro, Wulff - and more recently Goddard, Clarke, Patterson, Jorgensen - these men and many others have introduced significant changes to the way we tie flies and to our understanding of how trout perceive them.They have been responsible for such flies as the Adams, the Funneldun, the Bi-Visible and the Upside-Down fly, which have had a lasting influence on the sport. In this book, Conrad Voss Bark reveals the turbulent development of the dry fly throughout the twentieth century. In his usual lively and incisive style, he brings an important aspect of angling history to life.

What put Lincolnshire on the map? Author David Clark reveals why locals are proud to be Yellowbellies. In a lively and inviting series of chapters, It Happened in Lincolnshire uncovers the county's myths and legends, its landmarks, battles, its darker side of notorious crime, its curious customs, its entertainers, its wartime experience, its colourful rectors, its great explorers and its ghosts. King John's Lost Treasure The Devil's Stone The Dutch Drainers The Lincolnshire Rising The Murder of William Storr Stamford Bull Running Billy Butlin's Pymgy Princess The Dambusters The Lincolnshire Thrasher The Man Who Ate His Boots Marwood the Hangman

This is the Merlin Unwin Books edition and is the only one currently available which contains the iconic Raymond Sheppard illustrations which capture with remarkable verve and accuracy the dramatic highlight of each story. All royalties from the sale of the Merlin Unwin Books hardback edition go to the Corbett tiger reserve in India.The presence of a man-eating tiger in the Indian province of Naini Tal spread fear and panic throughout the impoverished rural community. This tigress had already killed 434 villagers by the time Jim Corbett was approached to track and despatch her in 1907.These thrilling and moving tales are Corbett's first-hand accounts as, over the ensuing 29 years and at the request of desperate locals, he expertly tracks and kills various specific tigers and leopards which had become man-eaters, driven to this by injury or extreme old age.No one understood the ways of the Indian jungle better than Corbett. A skilled tracker, he preferred to hunt alone and on foot, sometimes accompanied by his small dog Robin. Corbett derived intense happiness from observing wildlife and he was a fervent conservationist as well as a tracker and ace shot.He empathised with the impoverished people amongst whom he lived, in what is today Uttarakhand, and he established India's first tiger sanctuary there.Corbett's writing is as immediate and accessible today as it was when first published in 1944.