Alexander Schwab is a very good writer, as those who have read his earlier work Hook Line and Thinker will know. But the real charm of Dear Jim is as much in the observation the thinking and the unembellished wit that Schwab shares with his readers as it is in the polished but uncluttered prose. Having read fishing books for more than half a century, I can hardly expect to be surprised by something completely new. This book caught me off balance. No, it would be fairer to say that it knocked me for six with its clarity and its wonderful insight into the psyche of people who fish and of people who don't understand why so many of us do go fishing.

Read this book. You will learn a little about fishing, rather more about some intriguing fishing venues, quite a lot about the mind of Alex Schwab; and, if the book affects you in the way it did me, you may perhaps learn a lot also about yourself and your own attitude to angling (and hence about  life, if not the universe and everything).

Particularly enjoyable are the many anecdotes, some funny, others deeply thought provoking, that illustrate the point the author makes so persuasively. 

And what is that point? Well, what is the point of angling? The challenge? The anticipation? The fish? Not always... perhaps not often. But always potentially there is the beauty of it all, and Alexander Schwab brings this out so well both in his writing and in the remarkable photography that illuminates the text.

I am so glad I read this book, and I most heartily recommend it to all who think about their fishing, its traditions and its possibilities in the future.

Pat O'Reilly