A HANDFUL of original strips of the classic angling cartoon Mr Crabtree Goes Fishing have been found by a Daily Mirror journalist at the paper’s London offices.

It had been thought that all of Bernard Venables drawing had been destroyed in the 1940s, until they turned up in a clear out of drawers.

The lucky reporter is now proud owner of the 1940s strips, thought to be worth over £10,000. The series, which was created by Angling Times founder Venables for the newspaper, went on to inspire the UK’s biggest ever selling sporting book, selling over two million copies.