Stefan Duma was born in Nottingham close to where the Nottingham winch was invented and it seems he was destined to write the history of the men who devised the Nottingham style.
After many years abroad he returned to the UK and to one of his early childhood pastimes – fishing, once again harking back to his childhood when he used to sit outside the Man of Trent public house in Clifton with his brothers, eating crisps, drinking lemonade and dreaming of catching the monsters in the Trent.
Eventually the fisherman became a collector and upon discovering that there was such a thing as a “Nottingham” reel he wanted to know more.
Searching for information he discovered that there was very little and most of what was available was wrong. So he started his research into the Men of Trent.