Well written horsey books of the memoirey/chatty sort...

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turnbuckle

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ideally hunting focused....thinking along the lines of In The Pink.....any suggestions? Needn't be contemporary...in fact a military one would also be fine.

No misery memoirs, and nothing where the horse dies on the last page, please :)

Thanks in advance!
 
Horseman by J H marshall. Amazing memoirs. Also The Minstrel Boy by Vian Smith. Both well out of the ordinary in terms of writing esp the second.
 
It's not hunting, but The Horsey Life by Simon Barnes is excellent. Very well written (as you'd expect, given his profession) and really interesting and touching.
 
annagain said:
Not just horses but Claire Balding's autobiography "My Animals and Other Family" is lovely.
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As a joke present, I got given Clare's book for children, 'The racehorse who wouldn't gallop'. It's a great diversion for a little while and I really enjoyed reading it, though you can probably guess the ending!
 
Wild Horse Diaries by Lizzie Spender. All about taming a Brumby.

Fair Girls and Grey Horses – memoir by the Pullein-Thompson sisters.

Dark Horses and Black Beauties by Melissa Holbrooke-Pierson.

Fox in the Cupboard gets a vote from me too.

Talking of Horses by Monica Dickens.
 
Brill, great stuff. In exchange, if you're ever looking for a book for a 6to9 YO (esp horsey) try A Pony in the Luggage by Gunnell Linde. OOP but easy to get SH - charming story of two Danish children who get taken to Stockholm by their grandmother, win a miniature pony in a raffle and smuggle it home by train. Real period feel (publ early 60s) and a total winner.
 
Henry Blake's books are hilarious although mostly about horse training and how horses think there's quite a lot of hunting antics.
 
Not hunting related but I loved reading the treacle bucket as a teenager, my copy has funny little cartoons in it too, been reading it to dd :).
 
Another vote for talking of horses by Monica Dickens.. so well written..
Wasn't there a humorous one called 'It shouldn't happen to a horse woman?' of similar... that was quite fun!
 
Blanche said:
Not about hunting but very good. Breakfast The Night Before by Marjorie Quarton. It is about an female Irish dealer and I found it really interesting.
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It's a terrific book and very funny, and she wrote another one which I haven't been able to track down. Also an interesting book with horses, Ireland, hunting, and a bit of history is She Came of Decent People by Olga Pyne Clarke.
Red Letter Days by Molly Keane with the pictures by Snaffles.
 
Shadowdancing said:
Another vote for talking of horses by Monica Dickens.. so well written..
Wasn't there a humorous one called 'It shouldn't happen to a horse woman?' of similar... that was quite fun!
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Not sure if it's the same one you mean but this reminded me about Not Quite A Horsewoman by Caroline Akrill which is excellent. Really funny but I always get sniffly at the show pony story! Mind you, I always cry when The Comet's tale unfolds in her Eventer's Dream trilogy...
 
Following on from Sassoons Memoirs of an Foxhunting man [ which sparked off an interest in WW1 for me ] there is also
'My Horse Warrior ' by Mottisfonte
Also excellent in evoking a long lost age of the horse drawn life in London is 'A horseman through six reigns ' by Horace Smith.
Also enjoyed 'Ride a White Horse' which was about a journey made in the 1980s across most of England.
 
Memoirs of a Foxhunting Man - only fiction book my OH and I can both share, him for the cricket, me for the hunting, us both for the war. Memoirs of an Infantry Officer is also good but non horsey.
 
Lexi_ said:
Not sure if it's the same one you mean but this reminded me about Not Quite A Horsewoman by Caroline Akrill which is excellent. Really funny but I always get sniffly at the show pony story! Mind you, I always cry when The Comet's tale unfolds in her Eventer's Dream trilogy...
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YES! Thank you, that was it! I did have a copy, I think I must have loaned it out, it's disappeared...
 
Thanks everyone these are great for my xmas list.

Anyone know if the Irish RM tv series is worth watching? I'm tempted to ask for the DVD box set for xmas.
 
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