THE PHRASE “declaring an interest” is used by Members of the British Parliament when speaking in the House of Commons on a subject in which they have a personal interest.
I should do the same about this book.

The first edition of three volumes, two of flies and one of text, was compiled, edited and published by Timothy Benn in 2008. Like many, he was fascinated by John William Dunne’s 1924 Sunshine and the Dry Fly.This outlined a revolutionary tying process involving materials aiming to make the bodies of artificial flies appear transparent to feeding trout, thereby making the artificial more realistic and attractive.The concept and results caused great interest and enthusiasm.

This interest increased when the author faded from the scene as soon as the book was published. He wrote virtually nothing further on angling, moving on to become famous for writing about mathematics and philosophy, and he was the author of An ExperimentWith Time, published in 1927.

However, many letters and articles appeared in the angling press, including two from GEM Skues, who rated Dunne very highly.There was considerable controversy about both Dunne’s theories and the practicality of his flies. Hardy Brothers and Farlow were not slow to start selling his patterns, with S & EG Messeena selling the tying materials.

Hardy’s even marketed a Dunne Fly Tin, with the fly names engraved on lids of the internal compartments. Only Halford had previously been accorded such an honour. Interest remained strong in the flies – but not at the same level as when the book was first published.A second edition was isued in 1950 and the patterns and tying materials continued to be sold into the 1960s.

By about 1980,Timothy Benn’s interest in translucent fly bodies had grown to the point where he started thinking about a follow-up book, looking more closely at the techniques, patterns and materials used in the flies. He thought he would call it Dry Flies in the Sunshine.

Angling historian and author Donald Overfield contributed a chapter on Dunne the man, highlighting his skills as an aeronautical engineer, and the secret swept-wing biplane he designed and flew before the First World War, some 30 years ahead of his time.

Terry Griffiths, editor of the Fly Dresser’s Guild’s magazine Flydresser, contributed a lengthy chapter, and John Smith tied 25 sets of flies, one set to be sold with each book.

Maybe Tim felt that the text lacked sufficient depth on Dunne and his flies, but whatever the reason, Classic Angling editor Keith Elliott printed a request for more information. I mentioned in a conversation with Chris Sandford that I had a few bits. A few seconds later I found a telephone thrust into my hand.

Chris muttered something about striking irons when they were hot, and Tim Benn was on the other end. I met him in the Flyfishers’ Club and showed him my Dunne flies, tying materials, letters and press cuttings that I had acquired over the years.

Tim was keen to use just about everything and after several conversations about the com- plexities of the materials, particularly the Cellulite artificial silks and Dunne’s dyed hack- les, he requested that I wrote up what I knew. This too became a chapter in the book.

Tim’s Creel Press was renowned for producing books of the very highest quality. The final result in this case was a volume of text and two volumes of John Smith’s flies, displaying 15 of the “day flies” in one and five of the mayfly pattern in the other.All three volumes were beautifully printed and bound in goatskin. But it was limited to only 25 copies.With the high cost of the sumptuous edition, very few got their hands on a copy.

Tim had, however, planned what he called a “commercial edition” to reach a wider audience, with photographs replacing the flies plus 11 photos that were omitted from the first edition. PossiblyTim always had Coch-y- Bonddu in mind to do this, and he transferred the publishing rights to theWelsh company.

Although it has taken rather a long time to publish that “commercial edition”, here it is now, as number 19 in Coch-y-Bonddu’s Angling Monographs series. It has 155 pages, with some additional explanatory text to go with the previously missing 11 photographs as well as all the chapters and diagrams that were in the first edition.

Coch-y-Bonddu has taken this opportunity to publish a third edition of Dunne’s 1924 Sunshine and the Dry-Fly in hardback, so modern anglers can follow the whole story from 1924. It does not have flies included, but it does have details and photographs of the flies and tying instructions, and above all, costs less than a tenth of the 2008 price. I believe it will appeal to fly tyers, fly fishermen and angling historians alike.