This book takes a close look at how one of Britain's most popular participant sports, angling, has changed and developed over more than 100 years, through the eyes of those people most closely involved with our rivers and waters - the fisher gillies and river-keepers. The lives of these pillars of the country community have always held a strange fascination for the angler, and for all those interested in the countryside and its traditions, and Tom Quinn has travelled the length and breadth of the country to talk to some of our best known and longest serving gillies. The whole story is one of great change, from the days of the great brass reels and heavy greenheart rods of 50 year ago, to the ultra-light carbon and boron rods of the 1990s. But despite the inevitable developments in tackle and techniques over the years, there is still a strong sense of tradition and continuity throughout the book. Mick Lunn in Hampshire still works on the same stretch of river where his father and grandfather worked before him, and Joe Taylor has been gillie on the river Eden for 60 years. The author also takes a close look at the lives and work of the Royal gillies at Balmoral, from the time of Queen Victoria, and her gillie John Brown, to the present day.