THE FISHY SMITHS, a biography of JLB & Margaret Smith

344pp., b/w & colour illus., paperback, Cape Town, 2018

Traces the formative years and contributions to science of ichthyologists James Leonard Brierley and Margaret Smith. In 1938 JLB Smith identified an unusual fish discovered in East London as a coelacanth, thought to have been extinct for over 65 million years. JLB Smith and his wife Margaret worked jointly on the book, "Sea Fishes of Southern Africa", first published in 1949. JLB Smith died in 1968, and in the same year, Rhodes University established the JLB Smith Institute of Ichthyology in his memory. Margaret Smith, who had worked with her husband for 30 years, was appointed the first Director.

Mike Bruton studied ichthyology under JLB and Margaret Smith and took over from Margaret as Director of the JLB Smith Institute of Ichtyology. Now retired, he runs a consultancy company, "Mike Bruton Imagineering".