OK, so what would you do if you discovered a fly that no fish would refuse? G.E.M. Skues wrote that he knew of such a pattern and would fish with it no more – the secret died with him. Personally, I think that any hare’s ear bodied fly is pretty close to the ideal, but it doesn’t stop me using them, but when Marty goes to stay in a Dorset hotel to write a coffee-table extravaganza on the great dinners of history, the last thing he is expecting is to find the Holy Grail of fly fishing. In the 66 pages which make this novella, the central character is diverted from his gastronomic quest by the whispered tale of Shupton, a long dead fisherman who not only happened on the dressing for a fly to end all flies, but who left enough clues behind him for Marty to…

Sure, £12.95 (the Amazon price) is a lot of money for 66 pages, but Paul Schullery is never boring and this is the first fishing novella that has ever caught my attention. It would make a fantastic Christmas present for a fly fishing spouse.