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Larry - £40 is a good price for Colyer and Hammond! - it's packed full of information, though a bit out of date. The illustrations are still excellent.
As there are 7000 species of flies in Britain, you can't expect to get one book to cover everything in detail. You may be best to start with one group (Syrphidae, for instance) and then move onto others as you get more experienced. Stubbs and Falk is an classic guide to hoverflies and will keep you busy for years! Stubbs and Drake (Soldiersflies and Allies) is also a first-rate book which covers many others of the larger, more colourful species. And join the Dipterists forum - there are on-line keys and plenty of help available to members. See http://www.dipter...um.org.uk/ . Good luck!