BY THE EDITOR
When I received The Deer Stalker’s Bedside Book in the post, I thought about sending it to a colleague to review.
First, I know next to nothing about deer stalking and second, if I put the book beside our bed my wife would fast dispose of it, and quite possibly me.
But when I’d skimmed the book a bit I was keen to keep hold of it and read it from top to bottom, hence it is my byline attached to this review. (Today it sits proudly atop a mantelpiece in my study – well away from any beds or wives).
The book is written by a lifelong naturalist and countryman – Charles Smith-Jones – who has always had a special interest in deer which he has studied and worked with closely for more than forty years.
Previously a lecturer in countryside management at Sparsholt College, Hampshire, Mr Smith-Jones is currently Technical Adviser to the British Deer Society. He has written five books, four of them specifically about deer, and is a regular contributor to national countryside publications.
After a few pages reading about ammunition sizes and carcase storage you imagine the author to be of the bespectacled, halitosic librarian variety but as the book progresses and you read about muntjac sarnies and killer roebuck your first impression fast changes. Here is a man one can happily share some ale with.
Mr Smith-Jones is amusing and fascinating, and his rich character emerges page by page. He knows his deerstalking and he knows more about deer and deer behaviour than perhaps any human, let alone ChatGPT.
The Sun Tzu expression — ‘If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles’ — springs to mind. (One suspects deer do not stand much of a chance against the expert Mr Smith-Jones).
Charles Smith-Jones
It is not until page 123 of the book that readers get a chance to see Mr Smith-Jones’ prose in full flow and his writing does not disappoint. After 123 pages of an A-Z of everything about deer and deer stalking – some of which is fascinating and some of which would be fascinating to those who stalk deer – a beautifully-scribed ‘short stories’ section follows and there are several good reads to be had.
The true story of Mr Smith-Jones stumbling across a trespassing tree hugger on a private estate in South West England sticks in the mind:
“She was dressed in an old parka jacket, bright red boots and a rather fetching hat with green pom-poms that I suspected she had collected in the course of mugging an unsuspecting elf”
Without giving away the whole story, the tree hugger turns out to be most unimpressed with Mr Smith-Jones’ rifle slung over his shoulder and launches into a loud tirade at him and his sort – free of all fact and reality – before stomping off in the direction of Stonehenge…
A parable for the age.
After the short stories section there is a ‘Mixed Bag of Trivia’ segment which informs readers of various deer-related facts ranging from ‘Musk is a waxy secretion produced by a gland in the genital area of the male musk deer of eastern Asia’ to ‘Buckfast, a village in Devon, translates as the stronghold of the buck’. More useful for a BASC crossword than a pub quiz or an appearance on Who Wants to be a Millionaire, perhaps. Nonetheless, there are some good facts and anecdotes therein.
Thereafter a ‘Salmagundi’ section follows (not a salad-dodger, I still had to look up Salmagundi – a cold dish or salad made from different ingredients) replete with detailed facts about deer biology which will be of interest to genuine deer enthusiasts curious about deer gall bladders (they do not exist) and muntjac breeding.
I jest.
If this book were about fly-fishing I’d be poring over its pages looking for insights into larvae appearance and fishing strategy. It’s no doubt a paradise for deer stalkers but it’s also a very good and enjoyable read from a neutral’s point of view. What I particularly like about this book is the way the author has interspersed jottings with quotes from antis – you soon understand that the merited human freedoms Mr Smith-Jones is highlighting in his book face Luddite wrath and threats of cancellation by short-sighted, woke Puritans.
As the Sporting Shooter notes correctly on the back page of Mr Smith-Jones’ book:
‘It is the kind of book that is just as much fun to dip into at random as to read through from start to finish, and Smith-Jones’ fascination with all things deer shines through from every page. I defy any stalker to read this and not learn something new!’
I fully recommend this book, wherever you wish to, or are allowed, to keep it. It is one of those books on which you can contentedly graze. Whatever your involvement with deer, from zero to avid deerstalker to Government Minister twixt Countryman and Anti, you’ll learn from it and you’ll enjoy it.
The Deer Stalker’s Bedside Book is published by Quiller and a copy can be acquired here.