Fish have been a highly sought after part of the British fauna since Dame Juliana Berners wrote the first fishing book in 1486, but have long been overlooked by naturalists as a part of the British countryside.

In this new volume in the New Naturalist series, Dr Peter Maitland and Niall Campbell, who have both spent a lifetime studying and catching fish, take an in-depth look at the fish that inhabit the fresh waters of Britain and Ireland. These include famous members of the salmon family, such as the Atlantic Salmon and the Brown Trout, and the obscure whitefish, species of which are confined to just a few lakes.

The information that the authors uncover gives a comprehensive overview of the life cycle of fish, whether mundane spawning or the complex migrations of the Eel and Sea Trout, as well as details on diet, behaviour and ecology. The book also contains the most up to date identification key to both the families and individual species of fish, allowing every species of freshwater fish to be conclusively identified.

As well as detailed descriptions of each family, there are also seven chapters on more general subject. These include chapters on fish conservation and the future of the fish fauna in our country: a sign of the change in status of fish from the pursued to the studied.