Author workshop
Join our authors Julie and Matthew Bruton Seal at their London day-long workshop Make Your Own Aphrodisiacs on Friday 3 February. This fun course will teach you all about how to make delicious and sensuous aphrodisiacs, and their place in herbal medicine throughout the world. Samples, practical demonstrations and tastings, and a cultural eye-opener. To book telephone: 0208 350 4607.

Latest review news
Fishing with Harry sales have soared following author Tony Baw’s interview on Talk Sport last month with presenter Keith Arthur. Keith later reviewed the book for Angling Times as follows:

'Without doubt the best book, not just angling-related, that I have read in a long time. I promise that you will laugh out loud MANY times during the book. There is some colourful language so it is not a child's read, but it is blooming funny.'

New book - available now!
Next month, we publish the next in our popular paperback series: It Happened in Lancashire, £7.99, a lively and entertaining look at everything that has put the county on the map, by Malcolm Greenhalgh.  More details on the March website.

Make Your Own Aphrodisiacs Workshops
Julie Bruton-Seal and Matthew Seal - the authors of Make Your Own Aphrodisiacs - will be holding two workshops in early February where you can learn how to make love potions, elixirs, massage oils and tempting foods that will help fan the flames of passion. The workshops will include new recipes and lots of information about aphrodisiac herbs.

The College of Naturopathic Medicine, London W1
Friday 3 February, 10.00am to 4.30pm
£50 early booking fee, £60 on the door
For further information or to book, please contact All About Natural Medicine on 0208 350 4607 or visit the website: www.allaboutnaturalmedicine.com

Ashwellthorpe, Norfolk
Saturday 11 February, 11.00am to 4.30pm
£69 to include aphrodisiac lunch and snacks
For further information or to book, please email: info@hedgerowmedicine.com or visit the website: www.hedgerowmedicine.com

If you can't make the workshops and would like to meet Julie and Matthew, they will be selling their book at Books for Cooks, Notting Hill on Saturday 4 February.

New Titles
We are publishing two new books this month. The first is our unusual Valentine's Day gift, Make Your Own Aphrodisiacs, (£7.99). Written by our best-selling authors Julie and Matthew Bruton Seal, who brought you Hedgerow Medicine and Kitchen Medicine, this attractive little jacketed hard-back book shows you how to enhance the romantic mood with a variety of desirous drinks, erotic food, seductive scents and sensual oils and potions.  

The second book is the delightful Hoof-beats Through My Heart, A life shared with horses, (£7.99). Author David Edelsten writes with concise and delicate understatement as he records all the turning points, big and small, where his horses have played their part in his world: as a shy boy, a young solider, for pleasure or for work as a sporting journalist for Country Life, The Field and Horse and Hound.

Both books are published on 12 January but are available to buy on our website now!

Latest review news
Angling Times has a glowing review by Keith Arthur for Fishing with Harry in the 17 January issue.

'Without doubt the best book, not just angling-related, that I have read in a long time. I promise that you will laugh out loud MANY times during the book. There is some colourful language so it is not a child's read, but it is blooming funny.'

Author Tony Baws will also be talking about the book on Keith Arthur's TalkSPORT radio show on Saturday 14 January at 7.15am so tune in to 1089 or 1053 AM or via the internet or Sky TV.

Reprints
We have sold out of the Hardback edition of The Complete Illustrated Directory of Salmon Flies although we do still have a few copies of the Limited Leather Edition. We are going to bring the book back into print in paperback in mid-April at an incredible £20 so check the website for availability as we expect it to sell very quickly.

Christmas Deliveries
We will send out books for Christmas – either to you or direct to whoever you nominate – right up to 12.30pm, Wednesday 22 December but please telephone these orders to us on 01584 877456.

Christmas gift ideas
If you need any inspiration in choosing the right book for someone, click on the Christmas Gift panel on our home-page for some of our recommendations. Or ring us on 01584 877456 and we will be happy to help you decide.

The Duke of Rutlands Hounds – The Belvoir
We have been delighted with our sales of The Belvoir hunt book which looks set to sell out by the New Year, so if you want a copy of the first edition, you should order it from us in the next few weeks. The deluxe leather edition of the book (50 copies only) – see the Special Editions section of our website – are available now and the UK couriered service is included in the price. 

Merlin Unwin Books out and about
The image below shows Karen McCall and Merlin Unwin (on her left) at the Club Taurino London lunch, also attended by Tristan Wood, author of our acclaimed How to Watch a Bullfight, where the guest of honour was matador Vincente Barrera.

New deluxe leather edition
We are very pleased to announce that we have added The Belvoir to our series of deluxe limited leather editions. We are producing just 50 copies hand-bound in chestnut-brown goatskin leather with the hunt button in gold blocking on the front and spine. Each limited edition copy is signed and numbered, with Jemma Lewis hand-marbled endpapers, gold/brown head and tail bands, gilded edges, gold silk ribbon marker and in a top quality linen slipcase. For further details or to order the book, please follow this link: The Belvoir or telephone us for more information on 01584 877456.

Merlin Unwin Books out and about

On 20 September the Brown & Forrest Smokery held a party to celebrate the launch of Moonlighting, Tales and Misadventures of a working Life with Eels by Michael Brown, the Book Inn in Leigh on Sea launched Fishing with Harry, a tale of piscatorial mayhem by Tony Baws on 22 September and at Belvoir Castle in Rutland on 27 September the Belvoir Hunt held a party to celebrate the launch of The Belvoir, The Duke of Rutland’s Hounds by Michael Clayton. The image below shows The Duchess of Rutland (left) and Michael Clayton (centre), and John Holliday (Huntsman) at Belvoir Castle.

Merlin Unwin Books Brochure 2011

Our new 2011 brochure is available now and has been posted out to all our regular customers, with our usual offer of £5 off for all orders of more than £30-worth of books. If you would like to download the brochure or receive a copy by post, follow this link: brochure.

New books
All our new autumn books are now on sale and reviews are expected in various newspapers and magazines in the next few weeks and months.

Merlin Unwin Books at the Ludlow Food Festival
Come and see us on stand in the Castle Gardens at the Ludlow Food Festival (9-11 September), where you can meet the Mushroom Doctor, our author Alex Schwab, who is launching his new book Mushrooming with Confidence.

Anyone buying his book via our website during the month of September 2011 will automatically be entered into a prize draw for a pair of specially commissioned 18-carat gold ‘mushroom’ earrings which have been handcrafted by a Swiss jeweller.

(Alex Schwab left, Michael Brown right)

Also on our stand will be the smoked eel enthusiast Michael Brown whose new book Moonlighting, Tales and Misadventures of a Working Life with Eels, will also be launched, so if anyone wants to know how to smoke an eel, he’s your man.

Alex is giving an illustrated lecture on how to mushroom, with confidence, on the Olive Stage at the Food Festival on Sunday 11 September at 11am.

And Michael Brown will be giving a talk about catching, preparing and smoking eels on the Olive Stage at the Food Festival on Friday 9 September at 11am.

Merlin Unwin Books at Ludlow Food Festival
We are taking a stand at the 2011 Ludlow Food Festival (9-11 September) to launch the best new book for mushroom hunters by Alex Schwab, author of the best-selling beginner’s guide on the subject. His new book Mushrooming with Confidence, will show how to identify and pick the 20 top UK mushrooms without any doubt about which ones they are!

In addition, we will also be launching Moonlighting by our new author Michael Brown. Michael has made a living out of catching, exporting, smoking and curing eels and Moonlighting is his inspiring, heart-warming memoir. 

We will be joined by both Alex and Michael throughout the weekend. They are both giving talks during the Festival and will be available on our stand for a chat and will be available top sign copies of their books. Ludlow Food Festival in well worth a trip anyway so make a note of the date!

New books – coming soon!
Our new brochure featuring our autumn titles will be sent out this September to those who have bought from us directly in the past, so it is a good opportunity for you to buy a thoughtful Christmas present well ahead and to then sit back and enjoy festivities without the commercial pressure. Books are with UK customers within a week of us receiving the order – or of course they can be ordered through ANY bookshop free of charge.  We also keep our website constantly updated with any new titles as they come in but you can find out full details of our forthcoming titles by looking at the New Books section of the website.

USA Distribution
Our full-colour reference guide How to Watch a Bullfight (£20) is now also distributed in the USA by our new agents SCB Distributors who are now handling supplies of all our relevant titles in the States.

Adder update
We have been delighted by the number of sightings of adders reported to us by customers who have read and enjoyed Rodger McPhail’s new colour book The Private Life of Adders (£14.99).

Please email us on books@merlinunwin.co.uk with comments about any of our books, or with details of any you would like us to consider publishing in the future.

More Bullfighing news!
Guest of honour at the Club Taurino of London lunch at the Welliington Hotel Madrid on 27 May was Giles Paxman, British Amabassador to Spain (picture below). He said How to Watch a Bullfight was just the book he needed so that he could fully understand the corrida. 'This is going to save me years of research!' he said. The other guest of honour was El Viti, world-famous retired matador, who spoke movingly about his career and his love of bulls.

The bullfight season is in full swing in Madrid, Seville and all across Spain. Our new book How to Watch a Bullfight is now available, as well as in the UK, at all the key arenas in Spain and the tauromaquia shops there. The image below shows the book displayed at Las Ventas Bullring in Madrid. A big feature on the book will appear in the Irish Independent later this month.

It Happened in Gloucestershire was the subject of a radio programme in the last week of April: anyone who lives, visits or has a connection with this county will enjoy Phyllida Barstow’s lively account: from Richard III to Eddie the Eagle, Concorde, the Cheese Race on Cooper Hill, the surfers of the Severn Bore, Jenner the conqueror of smallpox, to the Gloucester Old Spot and the hardy miners of the Forest of Dean. All in a new, £7.99 paperback.

Reprints
We have just reprinted Diggory Hadoke’s Vintage Guns for the Modern Shot, and we are currently on press with the third printing of Julie Bruton Seal and Matthew Seal's Hedgerow Medicine which will arrive in stock at the beginning of June.

New titles
Our already-popular new colour book, The Airgun Hunter’s Year is now safely in our warehouse and can be ordered on this website. Author Ian Barnett met other airgun enthusiasts and fans of his regular Airgun Shooter column on the Blaze stand at the British Shooting & Countryman show at Newark where his book sold strongly over the two days! Several reviews have already been published and more will be appearing in March and April issues of the sporting press:

'Without doubt, this ranks as one of the most informative airgun hunting books ever written. Each chapter is packed with invaluable information about quarry, technique and tips on what to look for when you’re out hunting, all interspersed with highly entertaining anecdotes that are what …sets it apart from other books on the subject.' Airgun Shooter, March 2011

'Few books cater for the experienced shooter and the beginner alike. This… is one of the few.  This is a fantastic book that should grace the shelves of not just airgunners but all small-calibre hunters and countrymen. It’s a sure winner.' Sporting Rifle, March 2011

In the week beginning 7 March we hope to take delivery of the beautiful and colourful step-by-step guide How to Watch a Bullfight: see details on our New Books page of this website.

We expect to have stock of the lively and informative It Happened in Gloucestershire by the middle of March: see details on our New Books page of this website.

In May we launch The Private Life of Adders by Rodger McPhail at the Tryon Gallery in London, where he will also be showing his latest collection of art. Please contact Joanne Potter via this website if you are interested in attending. This is the first full colour dedicated book on Britain’s only venomous snake.

The first to come out will be How to Watch a Bullfight by Tristan Wood, published on 15 March. This illustrated guide acknowledges that attending a bullfight is controversial but its step-by-step explanation of what is going on during each 15-20 minutes of lidia throws light on all the key players and the purpose of each move. It is designed to give readers a clear understanding of what is going on in a bullfight, so that they can either increase their pleasure in watching a corrida in Spain, France, Portugal or Latin America; or simply learn what is involved in this most emotional, complex and colourful of modern-day spectacles.

Then we have The Airgun Hunter’s Year by Ian Barnett, which is published on 17 March. Ian writes regularly for the shooting press and for Countryman’s Weekly. As the year unfolds, he takes the reader out into field, wood and farm in search of rabbits, squirrels, corvids, pigeons and rats, and he offers invaluable tips and inspiration to every shot and lover of the outdoors, in all its seasons.

On 7 April we publish It Happened in Gloucestershire by Phyllida Barstow, the second in our 'It Happened in' series. Phyllida’s lively text and photos outline everything that has put Gloucestershire on the map, from Eddie the Eagle to Vaughan Williams, from Desert Orchid to  Richard III  -  as well as the varied claims to fame of Concorde, GCHQ, the Cotswold Lions, the conqueror of small-pox, the Gloucester Old Spot and the hardy miners of the Forest of Dean.

Thank you!
Thank you to everyone who bought a copy of our books this Christmas. It keeps a specialist publisher like us in business and we are delighted that our sales were up 19% September-December on the previous year.

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 14 December to ensure your parcel arrives in the UK before Christmas, mid-day on 10 December for European destinations and mid-day on 3 December for Eastern Europe and worldwide destinations.

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

Recent reviews
Here are a small selection of the accolades we've received from reviewers for some of our recent books:

This England’s Winter 2010 issue says of Kitchen Medicine ‘Just reading it makes one feel better’ whilst Herbs Magazine says ‘I love the Quick Reference by Ailment section. This is another book I’ll be turning to time and time again.’

Ray Collier of Highland News loved The Otter: ‘The photographs are a delight in themselves. This is not simply a monograph on the otter but rather a conservation story. This is a must on any bookshelf of any naturalist, young or old, and of whatever experience, with these engaging and fascinating animals.’ And Countryfile Magazine said that it was ‘An entertaining and delightful read. This monograph by a lifelong otter expert is a pleasure, and would make a warm and informative read for any countryside and wildlife lover.’

Sporting Shooter reviewed Douglas Butler’s Wild Duck and their Pursuit and called it ‘A lively and informative book. All the questions and more are addressed in Douglas Butler’s no nonsense style as he shares the knowledge of a lifetime’s interest in ducks and in hunting them.’ Whilst Shooting Times said it was ‘Easy to read, this book gives the shooter a well-rounded view of fowling.’

Guaranteed UK Christmas deliveries
Last-minute orders: up to 12.30pm, Wednesday 22 December.
From 16-22 December, we will courier books to customers wanting books for Christmas, for an additional £1.50 p&p for mainland Britain. Please telephone these orders to us on 01584 877456

Most of our non-urgent orders are sent out by Royal Mail 2nd class post or standard airmail for overseas items. You need to place your 2nd class order by mid-day on 14 December to ensure your parcel arrives in the UK before Christmas, mid-day on 10 December for European destinations and mid-day on 3 December for Eastern Europe and worldwide destinations.

Merlin Unwin Books in the snow
Our office is in Ludlow and the picture below shows from left to right: Pauline Sterckx (International Marketing Consultant), Joanne Potter (Marketing Director) and Karen McCall (Managing Director):

 Merlin Unwin is, unfortunately, behind the camera!

New brochure
Our new annual autumn brochure has now gone out to all our regular customers and by the end of this month it will have appeared in The Countryman, The Lady, Countryfile, Country Life and The Oldie magazines.

Early reviews have been very encouraging and a couple of highlights are shown below:

Gone Native
From the first story, about his grandfatherʼs clay pipe, to the last, about the Devil he has come up with another vintage set of stories. Just over 200 pages in this new book, all of them worth reading, and if you havenʼt come across Donaldʼs stuff before, I strongly recommend him for a winterʼs evening. – Andrew Herd, Waterlog

Kitchen Medicine
...explores the history and uses of a vast range of kitchen staples, such as olive oil, oregano, thyme, cinnamon and cardamom and then suggests ways in which they can be used to help and heal our bodies… – Eastern Daily Press

Merlin Unwin Books out and about
We were in Taunton’s Brendon Books on 1 September to launch The Otter, James William’s natural history (see photo below) and we went to the NEC to launch Over the Farmer’s Gate by Roger Evans on 7/8 September. We will also be at the Wigtown Book Festival launching Gone Native, Donald MacIntosh’s long-awaited travel book.

Merlin Unwin Books Brochure 2010
Our new 2010 brochure is available now and will be posted out to all our regular customers by the end of September, with our usual offer of £5 off for all orders of more than £30-worth of books.

Seasonal books
This year is proving to be a prolific mushroom season after two poor ones, with enormous harvests of bolites, so if you haven’t already got a copy of Mushrooming Without Fear, the book that teaches you to PICK WITH CONFIDENCE, then now is the time to order it.

An indian summer is also prolonging the fishing season and we have already reprinted our new Pocket Guide to Matching the Hatch, the invaluable little book which takes the guess-work out of fly selection.

On the subject of fishing, Merlin Unwin Books chairman is pleased to announce, by the way, that he caught a 26lb salmon on the Orkla in Norway a couple of weeks ago, although alas it was unwitnessed and no photos were taken. He is generally an honest man.

New books - coming soon!
The last of our new books for this autumn go off to press in the next week or two; most are already on press. Our new autumn titles include:

Over the Farmer’s Gate by Roger Evans.
Gone Native by Donald MacIntosh 
Kitchen Medicine by Julie and Matthew Bruton Seal
Wild Duck and Their Pursuit by Douglas Butler
The Otter by James Williams
The Best of BB by BB

We are also reprinting BB’s The Shooting Man’s Bedside Book, with new jacket and printed endpaper.

Recent publications
This summer we launched Hunting in the Lake District, followed by The Brewer’s Tale, which was described by journalist Adrian Tierney-Jones as ‘fascinating stuff. It’s a window into a different brewing world, one you could argue that has long gone. I found it fascinating and a different beast of a beer book to what I am usually used to. It costs a crisp tenner and I do recommend a gander.’

Our newly-published Pocket Guide to Matching the Hatch is selling strongly and has been very favourably received.  These three titles are all on sale now. 

Merlin Unwin Books out and about
Gone Native will be launched by us at the Wigtown Book Festival, on 29 September, when author Donald MacIntosh will be giving a talk about his travels and encounters working as a forester in the rainforests of West Africa (and Galloway and Newfoundland) and we hope to see you there.

Fans of the popular writer for the Western Daily Press, Shropshire farmer Roger Evans, will be with us at the Dairy Event and Livestock Show at the NEC Birmingham on 7 and 8 September where we will be launching his new book Over the Farmer’s Gate.

Joanne Potter and Karen McCall will be representing the company at the Frankfurt Book Fair October 6-10, selling international rights for Merlin Unwin Books titles. This month we have just signed a contract for a publisher to bring out a Russian language edition of Mushrooming Without Fear!

In stock now!
This month we publish Hunting in the Lake District, the new book by Sean Frain which celebrates the ancient traditions of this beautiful part of England. With evocative photographs, this £14.99 hardback is a lovely addition to the sportsman’s library.

The Brewer’s Tale, a lively and informed account of one man’s life in beer, from apprentice to master-brewer, is published this month and promises to be an entertaining read for anyone who enjoys a pint, or who likes a good memoir from a real enthusiast.

Our new Pocket Guide to Matching the Hatch is selling strongly, following an excellent review in Trout and Salmon magazine last month, and its publication has coincided nicely with the start of the flyfishing season, so now fishermen on lakes and rivers all over the UK and Ireland are able to select the right fly with much greater confidence!

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!