Stunned family also on hunt for book | Hawkes Bay News | Local News in Hawkes Bay

JOE DAWSON

The family of a Hawke's Bay author whose out-of-print book topped a list of most-searched-for books on an international website are also seeking a copy.

When Maree Barham returned to Havelock North from her Christmas break and read in Hawke's Bay Today about a book by her late husband that was highly sought after in Australia, she was blown away.

The Guide to Fresh Water Angling in Hawke's Bay, by Charles Russell Barham, first published in 1968, was the No1 title searched for on the Australian section of international website www.bookfinder.com

In the first year requests to the Australian section were rated, 2008 saw Barham's book prove more popular than true blue Aussie titles such as Souvenirs of the Sunny South, a collection of Australian Horse Verse (1915) by William James Wye, and Reptiles and Amphibians of Australia (1975) by Harold G Cogger.

To have the book, which Maree said Barham put his life into, come up again this way 40 years after it was published and 26 years after his tragic death, was unexpected.

``I was just blown away, it's been more than 25 years since he died,' she said. ``When I saw the article in the newspaper I thought, `what's this?'

``To know that 40 years after it was published people are looking for it now is amazing. He put his heart and soul into that book.'

She said Barham, who went by his middle name, was a great outdoors man and angler. Born in New Plymouth in 1932, he spent most of his adult life in the Bay.

The book's appearance in the news also stirred emotions for the couple's youngest daughter, Cathy Davel, who was 9 when her father died. Mrs Davel, who now lives in Wellington, said she didn't have much to remember him by or much to give her own children to know him by, either.

``I'm a mum now of two children and it would be special to have something to pass on to them.'

Family members hope people will check their shelves for a copy they would be willing to part with. The family would be happy to pay for it.