Books to have...

[Greys]

I've recently brought Fields Elysian, a portrait of hunting society by Simon Blow and i'm in love with it.

Can anyone recommend any other great book on hunting, etiquette, history, stories?

 

[Clodagh]

Anything by Willie Poole. The Introduction to Hunting is fab.

If you like fiction you could battle through Surtees.

 

[Sherston]

Fields Elysian is indeed a great book. There are so many hunting books available, some quite inexpensive and others..........

Some suggestions, the Lionel Edwards Leicestershire sketch books, Cecil Aldin - Ratcatcher to Scarlett and Scarlett to MFH, and the great Foxhunters Weekend Book - DWE Brook.

Another option is to concentrate on books on hunts in your local area, which is quite fun and interesting. If you want to see how many books are available have a look at www.way-books.co.uk

And of course everyone should have read "memoirs of a foxhunting man"

 

[Dunlin]

It's fiction (I think) but I am reading In the Pink: A Rural Odyssey by Molly Watson, it's very good!

 

[Shay]

Hunting sketches by Anthony Trollope is a great read. Any of the Jorrocks series - especially if you like the PG Woodhouse / Trollope type vein of social commentary. In the Pink is very funny and much lighter.

 

[hibshobby]

I love "Diary of a Fox-hunting Man" by Terence Carroll. It's described as " ...a full, entertaining and at points penetratingly disturbing account of the sport in the 1980s." and answers such questions as " ..how do they hunt foxes and why ? Why do they dress as they do ? How much does hunting cost them ? How cruel is the sport ? Should it be banned ? " Obviously it was written and published before the ban but is best summed up in the sentence that reads "There can be few such utterly British sporting activities so widely known about yet so little understood".
It's a super read and well worth tracking down a copy.

 

[Amicus]

Henry Blake's books are fantastic mostly about training horses and horse psychology but he seemed to be able to cure more less all vices by taking them hunting and his stories are hilarious and insightful.

 

[Alec Swan]

'Irish Bogs' by J W Seigne. It's an amusing account of sport and life in Ireland, and of particular interest, and towards the rear of the book, is a listing of all the packs, the country that they hunt, the numbers of Hounds and the Staff. It's a good read and in parts both Irish in essence, and painfully funny!

Alec.

 

[JillA]

I enjoyed the Irish RM

 

[LittleTero]

Following this thread I brought and have just read memoirs of a fox hunting man by sigfried, which I just loved but broke my heart in equal measure. Followed by in the pink, a very different read but one I really couldn't put down. Molly Watsons writing style had me laughing from start to finish! Anyone got any other suggestions?

 

[GoblinPony]

The Fox In the Cupboard: A Memoir by Jane Shilling.

 

[Mixedbag]

I was given "Black Horse Nemo" by Oskar Teichmann for Christmas and that is part hunting and part about WW1 - excellent read, very emotional and made me cry.

 

[spacefaer]

It's fiction (I think) but I am reading In the Pink: A Rural Odyssey by Molly Watson, it's very good!

If you hunt with the Ledbury, it's not very fictional =)