fox hunting fiction

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polopony

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As above; I'm searching for a fiction book about fox hunting for a present, have looked online but all (if any) reviews seem to be rubbish. So I wondered if you guys have read anything you could recommend. Any help much appreciated xx
 
If you look online, for David A.H.Grayling Antiquarian Books, he has a Hunting section, and it's well stocked too!!

If you can't find it, then PM me, and I'll give you his 'phone number. He is the most delightful man, and in the unlikely event that he doesn't have anything to suit you, then he'll be able to head you in the right direction, I feel sure.

Alec.
 
I would strongly recommend:

STRANGE STORIES OF THE CHASE

By The Countess of Feversham with an Introduction by The Earl of Halifax MFH.

Plus 16 Line drawings by Peter Biegel.

Published by, Geoffrey Bles

Printed by, Redwood Press Ltd of Trowbridge Wiltshire.

There are eighteen different stories.

Namely:
The Shawdow of the moor
The haunted hunt
John Denis
The ghost pack
Things in earth
The Gormanston Foxes
A story of Robin Hill
The Bramham moor
The Lockwood Beck ghost pack
Balck foxes and the black arts
Hunting Hare and Witch
A closing memory of Lord Harrington
Hounds run to Master's Grave
The handsome companion
The phantom huntsman
The Skail Pool Fox
Colonel Weatherford's Bruch
The Rector of St Timothy's

All highly recommended and a rattling good read each and every one! :eek:
 
And a great book it is too, I'm sitting looking at it now!

Alternatively, if he likes reference type books there are always either the Baileys or Hunting Year Books, Thoughts on Hunting by Peter Beckford, Ronnie Wallace's Manual of Foxhunting. If he's a pictures man then any by Jim Meads are good as is the one By John Minoprio on the Blue & Buff.

So much choice!
 
Absolute must..The Hunting Experiences of an Irish R.M., wonderful evocetive book of Irish life between the World Wars (I think) Oh my life,I still collapse with mirth thinking of Venus ("Vay-ness") scoffing the wedding breakfast.:D:D:D
 
EAST KENT said:
Absolute must..The Hunting Experiences of an Irish R.M., wonderful evocetive book of Irish life between the World Wars (I think) Oh my life,I still collapse with mirth thinking of Venus ("Vay-ness") scoffing the wedding breakfast.:D:D:D
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I ADORED the Irish RM! Wish I could see it again. And K.M. Peyton - the bliss of escaping schoolwork as a child was to have nose in a novel...
 
EAST KENT said:
Oh ..but the book is better still ,it really does capture the irish way so well.
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You have spurred me on to a secondhand book hunt! I shall track down the book of the Irish R.M!

Also, has anyone read 'Crab the Roan' by Kathleen Herald? I gather the author was actually K M Peyton writing under another name. Not specifically a hunting book but a wonderful horse story. Am still trying to find a copy of my own...
 
The Irish RM was hilarious, definitely not PC.

I loved the Molly Keane books, same sort of period. As she said in an interview towards the end of her life, it was an age and way of life coming to an end. I remember the heroine got into trouble if she didn't wear a coat over her breeches as the servants could see her legs. And they were always getting into scrapes with hounds and horses and racing and getting "quinched."

Molly wrote the books to get dress money and they were more or less about her life of horses and hunting. Good stories. She didn't write for years and then went on to write some still about Ireland and the crumbling mansions, with the crumbling people inside, not horsey but still wonderful and moving.

For children there are the Pullein-Thompson "We Hunted Hounds" and two others in the series I can't remember the name of.
 
Judgemental said:
I would strongly recommend:

STRANGE STORIES OF THE CHASE

By The Countess of Feversham with an Introduction by The Earl of Halifax MFH.

Plus 16 Line drawings by Peter Biegel.

Published by, Geoffrey Bles

Printed by, Redwood Press Ltd of Trowbridge Wiltshire.

There are eighteen different stories.

Namely:
The Shawdow of the moor
The haunted hunt
John Denis
The ghost pack
Things in earth
The Gormanston Foxes
A story of Robin Hill
The Bramham moor
The Lockwood Beck ghost pack
Balck foxes and the black arts
Hunting Hare and Witch
A closing memory of Lord Harrington
Hounds run to Master's Grave
The handsome companion
The phantom huntsman
The Skail Pool Fox
Colonel Weatherford's Bruch
The Rector of St Timothy's

All highly recommended and a rattling good read each and every one! :eek:
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My brother bought me this book for Christmas thanks to Sarah and I have just finished it & thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. If anyone would like to recommend more stunning reads I would appreciate it!!:D :D :D

Simon
 
Happy New Year one and all!

When you come up you can go back with an armful of books, too many to mention here but include Market Harborough, In a Grass Country, both Sasoon's, Foxhunter's Companion, The Harbourer, Huntsman's Rambles, some Surtees and lots more; as I said, too many to mention but you're very welcome to borrow them.
 
WelshD said:
Is it for a child? if so the Pullein Thompson sisters wrote one or two good stories
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My OH who has been in hunt service for 25 years and hunted several packs found my Pullien Thompson books when we last moved and read the hunting ones avidly and declared them an excellent read so not just for children!
 
The Foxhunter's Bedside Book - W Brock
Reminiscences of a Sporting Artist - Lionel Edwards
A Sportsman's Bedside book - BB
Scarlet and Corduroy - Lionel Edwards
Strange Stories of the Chase - Countess Feversham

of cours, Surtees, Sassoon - love KM Peyton (Flambards) and The Irish RM for ever!
 
Not fiction, but beautifully researched and written and full of anecdotes you want to read out loud: Ladies of the Chase, by Muriel Buxton.

The authors of The Irish RM are among the real-life characters.
 
Another vote for The Irish RM. Fabulously entertaining. Also second Memoirs of a Foxhunting Man by Siegfried Sassoon, although this is more of a bioghraphy I think.

One not mentioned so far is 'Horseman' - Memoirs of Captain J H Marshall. This is an autobiography, published in 1970 and probably out of print for many years but well worth getting hold of if you can.
 
I thrid Memoirs Of A Foxhunting Man. I had two lovely copies for Christmas, including a First Illustrated Edition, and am reading them at a brisk canter on the train to and from work - helps cheer me up in the morning :D Beautifully written and entertaining from one of this country's very great writers. I'm hoping to get copies of the sequels, Memoirs Of An Infantry Officer and Sherton's Progress, although they deal with his fighting during the First World War anfd its aftermath, so they may not be as fun :(
 
Which Molly Keane books? Have just had a look but don't know which ones to get. Or do I start from the beginning and work my way through them all?!! Just want to read the horsey/hunting ones!!
 
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