John Swarbrick's List of Wharfedale Flies, 1807
with an introduction by Leslie Magee

Published jointly with Ken Smith Publishing in 2009, this was the ninth miniature book from the Fleece Press. It reproduces John Swarbrick’s List of Flies for the River Wharfe, written in 1807. The List existed only as manuscript copies passed down within local families until it was printed in 1907. Copies of the 1907 printing are excessively rare, and so just over 100 years later, the Fleece Press introduced this new miniature version.

Trout fishermen using fishing flies carefully made from feathers to imitate tasty insects have for centuries favoured the River Wharfe for their sport, standing in deep pools to cast their line upstream. Swarbrick’s list is the earliest one which gives details of the dressings for the flies, and their uses. The descriptions nicely suited a miniature book, almost one to a page, with each fly, of which there are 30, photographed and reproduced on fold-out pages. There were several illustrations by Joan Hassall; and Leslie Magee, who is a well-known expert on Yorkshire fishing flies, provided an introduction.

Each of the standard copies has two of the 30 flies sewn into respective recesses in the front and back boards. In the deluxe copies, all thirty flies were provided in a specially-constructed binding design made by Ken and Joyce Smith, which was housed in an oak box made by Stephen Bryne. The incorporation of actual fishing flies into the book made this only the second miniature in the world to do so.

There were 260 standard copies, priced at £64 each, and 100 deluxe copies, priced at £484 each. Half of these copies bear the Ken Smith imprint.