Confessions of a Shooting Fishing Man

When Laurence Catlow, a classics master at a Cumbrian boarding school, sees a beautiful pheasant in flight, he wants to reach for his gun.

In this diary of his sporting year, he asks himself, between days on the local rivers and shoots, why this is so.

His answers are surprising, controversial and convincing. They provide an articulate response to the anti-fieldsports arguments, and he presents them in an entertaining, frank and amusing manner.

Throughout 1995, Laurence's diary records his hop...