Coming soon
From mid-March we will be able to supply the long-awaited, essential Pocket Guide to Matching the Hatch (£7.99), Peter Lapsley and Cyril Bennett’s practical little reference book which will take a lot of the guess-work out of choice of fly for all flyfishers. This has been published to coincide with the start of the flyfishing season, so why not begin this year with a new resolution to change your approach to fly-selection, and order a copy and one for fishing friends! Check this website around mid-March and as soon as the books are in our warehouse, it will go live on our New Books web-page for ordering. Peter Lapsley writes regularly for Flyfishing and Flytying magazine, and in the April issue of Trout and Salmon magazine he will have an article on matching the hatch.

Available now!
We were also delighted to have in our warehouse at the beginning of this month our new-in-paperback Tying Flies with CDC by Leon Links (£14.99). And likewise the new It Happened in Shropshire (£7.99).  The March issue of Shropshire Life reports:

‘It Happened in Shropshire is an invaluable, readable and informative guide to the county and the heroes and villains who made it what it is today.’

Forthcoming titles
The first new book which we publish in 2010 will be the long-awaited paperback It Happened in Shropshire: a lively look at all the famous and infamous aspects of this county: birthplace of Darwin, of the Industrial Revolution, of  murderers and heroes, woolly mammoths and  world-class golfers. This book is published 18 March 2010.

Next we launch the Pocket Guide to Matching the Hatch, an essential publication for all flyfishers for the start of the new trout season. Written by Peter Lapsley and Dr Cyril Bennett, this colour book will equip everyone on the riverbank or still-water to choose the correct artificial fly to correspond with the fly hatches the fish are feeding on. £7.99, published 14 April.

Reprints
The new paperback version of Tying Flies with CDC should be available to buy at the end of February, priced at £14.99. In the meantime we have a handful of the hardback edition still available.

Waterstones and local books
Waterstones Telford has achieved the highest sales of local books of any branch in their  national chain, thanks to their best-sellers from Merlin Unwin Books – A Shropshire Lad and Apley Hall. We are grateful to all the staff at Telford Waterstones for getting behind these two books with such enthusiasm.

Christmas orders
If you have any last minute orders, we can arrange for parcels to be despatched by courier to most UK addresses. There is an additional charge (£1.50) but you will need to contact us at the office (01584 877456). This service is available until 10am on 23rd December.

Most of our orders are sent out by Royal Mail 2nd class post or standard airmail for overseas items. You need to place your order by mid-day on 17 December to ensure your parcel arrives in the UK before Christmas or mid-day on 8 December for European destinations.

The office will be closed from Thursday 24 December for the Christmas period and we will be open again on Monday 4 January.

May we take this opportunity to wish all our customers a very merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year.

Reprints
Due to unexpectedly high sales we have reprinted our AE Housman’s A Shropshire Lad, the first colour photographic edition of this classic collection of poems.

Availability
All the  books shown in our brochure are currently available, with  the exception of BB’s Autumn Road to the Isles which has sold out. Also, we are bringing out a paperback version of Tying Flies with CDC in early spring, due to increased enthusiasm for fishing these unsinkable flies.

Forthcoming titles
New Spring titles will include another fishing book, The Pocket Guide to Matching the Hatch by Peter Lapsley and Cyril Bennett, and It Happened in Shropshire by Bob Burrows, a lively paperback account of the famous and notorious things and the prominent characters who have shaped this county.

A message from Merlin Unwin Books
No more doom and gloom – Merlin Unwin Books is bringing joy to everyone this Christmas.  A book is a thoughtful but good-value gift: it shows you that have chosen with care and it gives hours of pleasure. We can send a book, at no extra charge to you, direct to your friends and family – only £3.50 per address, no matter now many books you are sending.

Recent reviews
Here are a small selection of the accolades we've received from reviewers for some of our more unusual books. Click on the book title to see more reviews for each book:

John Cowan’s fascinating book Advice from a Gamekeeper, with its lovely Tunnicliffe illustrations, has been described in the November issue of Shooting Gazette as ‘a fantastic account of life behind the scenes’. It goes on: ‘Though packed full of expert advice, it is an accessible tome providing a beautifully written and very personal account of life as a gamekeeper’.

Home Farmer magazine says of Manual of a Traditional Bacon Curer: ‘If you are thinking of curing bacon and making sausages for sale, perhaps as a way of paying for your rural idyll, Maynard Davies’ book is just for you’.

Meat Traders’ Journal praises the way Maynard has finally written his book of a life-time to ‘pass on his 60 years’ knowledge about the art of smoking and curing to other enthusiasts’.

The This Little Piggy website says of Maynard Davies’ book ‘ What shines through is a wonderfully humane intelligence, simply brought to bear on the task at hand, that leaves the world a little better for his work and words.  We should all do so well.’

The Housman Society Journal (December issue) will describe our new photographic version of A Shropshire Lad as ‘a beautiful and evocative work’. It continues ‘This book, which any of us would be delighted to have on our coffee table, is a most worthy addition and can be confidently recommended to Housman lovers.’

Mushrooms are coming
A little October rain is all that is needed to really get the mushrooms burgeoning. Cherry-Anne Osborne emailed us this week to say that, within an hour of reading Alex Schwab’s reassuring Mushrooming Without Fear, she had achieved the results shown in this photo! Thanks for the feedback – Alex is most gratified.

Calling all bacon-curers!
We launched our new book Manual of a Traditional Bacon Curer at the Ludlow Food Festival and had a party for butchers and curers at the Ludlow Food Centre that same week. Maynard Davies was kept busy giving advice and tips to new and experienced bacon-makers.

Brilliant new cookbook
Tina Bricknell Webb demonstrated to a packed auditorium at the Ludlow Food Festival how to cook tender meat using her unique ‘pulse’ method, and how to make delicious chutney in only a matter of minutes. Her glamorous, silver Percy’s Cookbook was launched there and has since received excellent reviews in the national press. For details of her hotel and restaurant, click here.

Merlin Unwin Books brochure
Our new brochure, featuring all our new autumn 2009 titles, has been inserted in Country Living magazine, Gamewise magazine and Sporting Shooter. Anyone ordering a book from us direct will automatically receive a brochure every autumn.

New books
We publish six brand new titles this autumn and these are now in our warehouse. In no particular order, we have in stock:

My Animals and Other Family by Phyllida Barstow
Manual of a Traditional Bacon Curer by Maynard Davies
Percy’s Cookbook by Tina Bricknell-Webb
Advice from a Gamekeeper by John Cowan
Full English by Edward Miller
Apley Hall, The Golden Years of a Sporting Estate by Norman Sharpe

This year we also produced the first photographic version of A Shropshire Lad and brought out Innocent Victims (launched at Crufts) and And Miles to Go Before I Sleep in paperback. Reprints of Maynard's Adventures of a Bacon Curer, The Fisherman’s Bedside Book, Hedgerow Medicine and Beginner’s Guide to Flytying have also been made throughout the year.

We hope very much that you enjoy some of these new books, which can be purchased either directly from us or from any bookshop. If they aren’t already in stock, a good bookshop will order them free of charge for you, and you should have them within about a week.

Merlin Unwin Books Brochure 2009
Our new 2009 brochure is also published this month, featuring all of Merlin Unwin Books current titles, and this is mailed out to all our existing mail order customers or you can download a copy by clicking on the ‘our catalogue’ at the top of this page.

Merlin Unwin Books at Ludlow Food Festival
We are taking a stand at the 2009 Ludlow Food Festival (11-13 September) and will be joined throughout the weekend by Maynard Davies. Maynard has written two moving and hilarious books which cover his life story in bacon (Maynard Adventures of a Bacon Curer and Maynard Secrets of a Bacon Curer). His latest book, Manual of A Traditional Bacon Curer, is long-awaited and is the complete practical manual of how to make the bacon, cure it, smoke it, how to make sausages, faggots, scratchings, lardons, you name it.

Also at the Ludlow Food Festival, and giving a cookery demonstration on Saturday 12th, is our new author Tina Bricknell-Webb showing you how to make simple and delicious recipes from her festival-launched Percy’s Cookbook. Meet Tina on our stand throughout the festival, and ask a Michelin-starred chef how she does it – and run a hotel, restaurant and estate farm with her husband Tony.

New books coming soon
Ludlow’s world-famous Food Festival will run this year from Friday 11 to Sunday 13 September 2009 and we will be launching two long-awaited books there.

Maynard Davis’ new Manual of a Traditional Bacon Curer will be on sale, his full-colour, practical guide to curing, smoking, sausage-making and the secrets of producing all sorts of speciality products from black puddings to haggis to faggots.

And the owner of Devon’s Michelin-starred restaurant Percy’s, Tina Bricknell Webb, will be launching her new Percy’s Cookbook, a beautiful silver, full-colour hardback, full of her innovative recipes and ideas about modern, simple dishes using only the best, fresh ingredients. On Saturday 12 September, Tina will be demonstrating how to turn seasonal autumn produce into delicious meals and chutneys. We look forward to seeing you there and introducing you to Maynard and Tina.

Reprints
Following strong sales this summer, we are reprinting four of our books at the moment, and these will all be available from the beginning of September – watch the website for dates. Reprints are: Hedgerow Medicine, A Shropshire Lad (virtually sold-out within four months of printing), BB’s Fisherman’s Bedside Book and Maynard’s hilarious and moving life-story, Adventures of a Bacon Curer.

Merlin Unwin Books out and about
Merlin Unwin Books team promote our titles abroad. The image below shows (left to right) Head of Marketing Joanne Potter and MD Karen McCall at the US Book Expo in New York at the beginning of June, with Paul Kidson of Ludlow Book Binders (who has produced fine leather editions of A Shropshire Lad, The Complete Illustrated Directory of Salmon Flies, The Byerley Turk, Geese!, Willie Irving, Flyfishing in Ireland, Private Thoughts from a Small Shoot and The Secret Carp. Details are on our website in the Special Editions section.

David Lloyd: a tribute from Merlin Unwin Books
There aren’t many people about whom the word ‘irreplaceable’ can be applied literally, but in David Lloyd’s case, I think the adjective is correct. No one else can fill his role in Ludlow, the town he loved so much. For the last 18 years I have worked closely with David. We published his Concise History of Ludlow in 1999. We were in the middle of producing a colour brochure for St Laurence’s Church when David died, a project into which he was putting his whole soul. The relationship between author and publisher is a very close one, and any personal traits are quickly laid bare. David was a model author: talented, efficient, modest, accommodating. He has always shared those gifts freely with the people of Ludlow. His aim was simply to communicate with his audience, rather than to display his knowledge. Over the years we at Merlin Unwin Books worked on numerous projects with David and he could always be counted on to be the ultimate professional. He always gave his best, but he combined his academic talents with the unusual trait of being willing to compromise. That was part of his endearing charm.
                                                         Karen Unwin, MD, Merlin Unwin Books, Ludlow

Cartoon exhibition
Roger Penwill, whose Countryside Cartoon Joke Book we publish, is having a cartoon exhibition at Ludlow Assembly Rooms from 8 to 14 May. If you would like the opportunity to meet Roger and Merlin there (by confirmed booking only) on Saturday 9 May please email: merlin@merlinunwin.co.uk. Roger will have signed copies of his book available and will also be selling cartoon prints.

Merlin Unwin Books in the USA
Karen McCall and Joanne Potter will have a Merlin Unwin Books stand at the New York Book Fair 27 May to 1 June.

Rivers of Ireland 
Peter O’Reilly’s brand new 7th edition of Rivers of Ireland, the best and only comprehensive reference book on the subject, is now published, in perfect time for the mayfly hatch!

Shropshire Lad book launch
Over 160 guests and members of the Housman Society attended the Merlin Unwin Books launch party of our new edition of A Shropshire Lad, which celebrates the 150th anniversary of the poet and classical scholar's birth. We also displayed the deluxe limited leather-bound edition of the book, details of which are now on our website. Click here for further details.

The image below shows Guy Owens, who is depicted on the cover of the new book, and as the ploughman on the title-page, with Edward Woods, of Woods Brewery, Shropshire, who provided their Shropshire Lad ale for all the guests. 

New books
We launch three new books this month:

Innocent Victims tells the story of Meryl Harrison who braved the hostile atmosphere of Zimbabwe’s recent farm invasions to rescue hundreds of stranded pets and livestock. The book is published on 5 March and we are launching it at Crufts Dog Show at the NEC 5-8 March inclusive. Meryl will be on our stand (hall 4, stand 109) throughout the weekend, signing copies of her new book. We will have regular visits from an Australian cattle dog (as shown on the jacket).

And Miles to Go Before I Sleep, by the Kenyan vet Hugh Miles, is coming out in paperback. The book is published 9 April but is available to buy through out website now. If you want the hardback edition, hurry because we only have a handful still available!

On 25 March, we launch the new 150th anniversary photographic edition of A Shropshire Lad. This coffee-table hardback book is illustrated by Gareth Thomas who has matched the timeless beauty of the Shropshire landscape with Housman’s haunting verses.

Coming soon
A signed, limited edition leather-bound version of A Shropshire Lad (100 numbered copies, boxed, bound in green leather goatskin with hand-marbled endpaper etc). Please email books@merlinunwin.co.uk to order a copy.

Glasgow Angling Centre Open Weekend
There is an open weekend at Glasgow Angling Centre from Friday 27 February to Sunday 1 March to celebrate the start of a new season. There will be lots of offers and the chance to meet some very special guests. In conjunction with Merlin Unwin Books, Glasgow Angling Centre have commissioned 3 exclusive prints taken from the illustrations in Chris Mann's Complete Illustrated Directory of Salmon Flies. Each print is signed by both the author and the flytyer and is to be raffled to raise funds for the tyers chosen charities.   
     
The prints are as follows:   

• A set from Duncan Egan featuring the modern classic Flamethrowers, Flaming Pigs and the Volcano, Duncan has chosen The River Dee Trust to benefit from this raffle.   
• A set from Mikael Frodin featuring Scandinavian Templedogs and the infamous Octopussy, Mikael would like the proceeds from this raffle to go to Orri Vigfússon's North Atlantic Salmon Fund.   
• A set from Davy McPhail featuring his Fatback tubes and traditional shrimp patterns, Davy is donating the proceeds from his raffle to Casting for Recovery.    

The prints will be on display in the fly dressers area for the whole weekend!
 
Raffle tickets cost £1 and will be on sale throughout the open weekend, with the winners being drawn by the tyers at 5.00 pm on the Sunday. For more information about this event please go to www.fishingmegastore.com   

Also available over the weekend will be a limited number The Complete Illustrated Directory of Salmon Flies signed by Chris Mann and all three flytyers, these can be ordered in advance by calling 0141 331 6330.    

New books coming soon
We start the New Year planning two exciting new books for March. First off the press will be a new book Innocent Victims, Rescuing the Stranded Animals of Zimbabwe’s Farm Invasions. This is Meryl Harrison’s extra-ordinary story of her part in this mission, told by Zimbabwean journalist Catherine Buckle.

March 26th is the 150th anniversary of the birth of A. E. Housman, and as Ludlow-based publishers, we’re proud to bring out the first edition of A Shropshire Lad to be illustrated with colour photographs of this beautiful county.

At the end of March, we also bring out, in paperback, our highly-acclaimed account of a vet’s life in modern Kenya, And Miles to Go Before I Sleep. If you want the book in hardback – it's your last chance because we only have a very few copies still available!

Shooting gifts
Finally, as the shooting season comes to a close, what better gift to give your host than a copy of Laurence Catlow’s latest book, That Strange Alchemy: Pheasants, Trout and a Middle-Aged Man – which was described in the latest edition of Irish Country Sports and Country Life as ‘at the pinnacle of contemporary fieldsports writing’.

Details of all these books are on our website.

A message from Merlin Unwin Books
No more doom and gloom – Merlin Unwin Books is bringing joy to everyone this Christmas.  A book is a thoughtful but good-value gift: it shows you that have chosen with care and it gives hours of pleasure. We can send a book, at no extra charge to you, direct to your friends and family – only £3.50 per address, no matter now many books you are sending.

Book reviews
Here are a small selection of the accolades we've received from reviewers over the last few months. Click on the book title to see more reviews for each book:

The Complete Illustrated Directory Of Salmon Flies
‘The sheer scope and ambition of the Directory is enormous and it works brilliantly. Honest, well-ordered information…. If you like salmon flies, if you fish for salmon and are seeking inspiration – treat yourself!’ Flyfishing & Flytying Magazine, December 2008

That Strange Alchemy
‘A celebration of all that is wonderful about our treasured sporting pastimes, and a perfect gift for the shooting man or woman in your life. If you need a book to warm the soul this winter, then look no further than Laurence Catlow’s latest.’ Shooting Gazette, December 2008

The Naturalist’s Bedside Book
‘A poetic style that is laced with BB’s knowledgeable opinion on the natural world. An early Christmas treat for all.’ The Field, December 2008

Willie Irving: Terrierman, Huntsman & Lakelander
‘Sean Frain’s account of Willie Irving’s life brilliantly captures the way that country sports were enjoyed in the first half of the 20th century. A fine account of a true countryman.’ Shooting Gazette, December 2008

Nature’s Playthings
‘The text is clear and simple and the photos inspiring – the leaf boats compare with the best environmental art. I want one for Christmas.’ Children & Young People Now, 6-12 November 2008

Hedgerow Medicine
‘Contains enough information to save the NHS a fortune.’ This England, Autumn 2008

The Countryside Cartoon Joke Book
‘A whole lot more of laughs from the talented Roger Penwill. He has a great eye…’ The Countryman, September 2008

Merry Christmas from us all at Merlin Unwin Books!