a central wood-engraved vignette of a husband and wife on a fishing boat on a lake, reflecting the real life relationship of author and illustrator. This mounted centrally on a background sheet with a repeated pattern of outline drawings of trout, overlayed with bold lettering. The turquoise colour of the paper was adopted for the first issue of the 1st edition, published by Herbert Jenkins in 1944, but amended to a brick red for the second printing two years later, though the design itself was retained.

Joy Barnes, (née Spearman, 1912-2019), trained at the Chelsea School of Art under Henry Moore and Graham Sutherland, before going on to study commercial art in Berlin which set her on the path of her career. She moved to Somerset after the Second World War and founded the Bruton Art Society in 1953, remaining its president until her 100th birthday, before retiring to a nursing home for another six years