FLY FISHING A Memories of Angling Days J. R. HARTLEY Book on fly fishing has a certain lure By MIKE ELLIS The Indianapolis News "Fly Fishing: Memories of Angling Days" is a case where the story behind the book is more interesting than the book itself. It's not that the book is terribly uninteresting, but seldom do you find one that had its origins in a telephone commercial. A few years back, British television aired a commercial for that country's Yellow Pages. The commercial featured a story line about an elderly gentleman calling bookstores in search of a rare flyfishing treatise by J.R. Hartley. After numerous unsuccessful calls, the man became increasingly desperate until at last he found a bookstore that had it. Much relieved, the man asked the clerk to reserve it for him. Asked for his name, the man said, "J.R. Hartley." The commercial charmed British television viewers and soon bookstores began receiving requests for the J.R. Hartley fishing book. Of course, it was all fiction and no such book existed. However, the British publishing firm Stanley Paul & Co. Ltd. realized money could be made in producing one. It hired an author to ghost-write a story and artist Patrick Benson to create elegant pen-and-ink drawings. The book became a best seller in Britain and received favorable reviews in that country's press. Several newsmen wrote tonguein-cheek stories attesting to their friendship with J.R. Hartley and their familiarity with his work. While American readers would lack the background that made the book such a hit in Britain, it nonetheless works effectively as a satire on the tradition of genteel autobiographies about English country life. The Hartley character is a product of that very British institution, the public boarding school. Much of the book deals with his experiences as a student and teacher at schools in Yorkshire. Each chapter serves as a vignette from a period' in Hartley's life, poking fun at class distinctions, rivalries among his colleagues and various characters he meets while pursuing his passion for fishing. The humor is mostly broad, involving pratfalls and pranks Hartley makes while trying to save face or get revenge on others. As a fishing book, it offers little for the experienced fly fisherman except some insight into British fly patterns and famous British trout and salmon streams. The writers hired a fly-fishing consultant to ensure accuracy of fly names and fishing sites, but the book offers little in the way of fishing tactics.