The Amateur Poacher

Pages: 96

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About this book

An old flintlock hidden in a gloomy garret opens Richard Jefferies's account of youthful shooting and life among fields, hills and woods. The narrator and his companion Orion climb among rafters in search of pistols, then struggle to keep their forbidden gun. These memories lead into a rural world of fishing, birds, woodland exploration and encounters with people whose livelihoods depend on game.

The later passage gives Oby room to tell his own story in country dialect. His disputes with landlords, keepers and the police reveal a network of suspicion, local knowledge and uneasy bargains. Jefferies connects outdoor observation with portraits of the characters he meets, including poachers seen at work. Readers interested in rural speech and the social life surrounding hunting will find both close attention to place and a sharply individual voice in these pages.

About the author

Richard Jefferies

Richard Jefferies (1848-1887) was an English nature writer and novelist born on a Wiltshire farm at Coate. Celebrated for essays and books rooted in the countryside, among them The Story of My Heart and Bevis, he combined precise natural observation with mysticism before dying young of tuberculosis.