The Lancashire Nobby or whatever else you call it - Morecambe Bay prawner is a common one - is probably the best known type of inshore fishing boat in the British Isles. They sometimes have been referred to as 'traditional' boats, but in their present form they are only just over a hundred years old. They have a reputation for being fast and seaworthy and they certainly had to be when working the treacherous waters of the north-west Irish Sea. Their hey-day was before 1914, and the last one was built in the 1930s. Many worked under motor and a scrap of sail into the 1960s.

Their yacht-like lines have always attracted attention, and today a dedicated band of nobby enthusiasts keeps a fleet of some twenty boats still sailing. But while the nobby survives sailing, not much has previously been written about her origins, design, and how she was worked as a fishing boat. Leonard Lloyd's book plugs this gap in an authorative way. He has persued their history over many years and measured key examples among the survivors, producing a book which will be of value to both historians and model makers.