Book Reviews

International Guild of Knot Tyers

Reset edition ©2012 International Guild of Knot Tyers

Limited hardback edition: ISBN 0 9515506 9 1

Paperback edition: ISBN 9515506 8 3

In 1925, the New York magazine Sea Stories published six monthly articles on knots. The history of knots and rope, stopper or terminal knots, ligatures, loops and nooses, bends, and all kinds of hitches, were described and illustrated by Clifford Warren Ashley, to see if there was interest enough for a future book on knots. There was, and the outcome would eventually be The Ashley Book of Knots, published in 1944. Indeed, the style and layout of that later book are already apparent in those earlier 20th century articles, which are now brought together in this superb IGKT reproduction. With a portrait photo of Ashley himself, a narrative Foreword from his daughter Phoebe Warren Ashley Chardon, and an Introduction by Des Pawson, MBE, whose dedicated research made this book possible, it is an enlightening read for Ashley devotees. 

Geoffrey Budworth