Overview

Published in co-operation with Shooting Times, this is a collection of the best writing by their most popular columnist Alasdair Mitchell, who is featured each week in his Sharpshooter column on the inside back page of the magazine. Covering all aspects of the countryside from field sports to conservation, nature and wildlife this book will appeal to everyone with an interest in rural life and to the many thousands of readers who have followed his contributions over many years. AUTHOR: Alasdair Mitchell owns and lives on a remote farm situated on the barbarian side of Hadrian's Wall in Northumberland. In addition to sheep, he keeps a small herd of red deer.

Full Product Details

Author:   Alasdair Mitchell ,  Johnny Scott (Honorary Life Member British Association for Shooting and Conservation, BASC) ,  Patrick Galbraith
Publisher:   Quiller Publishing Ltd
Imprint:   Quiller Publishing Ltd
ISBN:  

9781846892615

ISBN 10:   1846892619
Pages:   232
Publication Date:   25 June 2018
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Out of stock  
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Table of Contents

Acknowledgements Foreword Introduction Part One 1997–2002 Moonflighting with a werewolf A stag to remember When they shoot back An uphill flight It's different over there A bit of a boar Part Two 2003–2007 Let's ban the can Sustainable eco-babble My very own trespassers Ring of bright truth Confessions of a boar hunter A very different country Trigger happy Saving barney A proper police response Sustainable exploitation of the gullible Lost and found Up close and personal with a buffalo That old goose magic The iron man of Africa Just an ordinary shoot Spring is sprung Cull of the wild Charlie, RIP If it pays, it stays Town and contrary Off the map Bird Brains? Stalking fashion Help! The badgers are going to get me Part Three 2008–2012 Dare to dart a big critter A place for nature? Is there a sixth sense? Limit the bag An offensive mole Divided by a common language On the origin of denial All-out war Livestock liabilities A load of goose manure The other half of the equation Out for a duck, again No more fences please Devil take the hindermost A winter's tale The fat blue line Native aliens First flight at last light The great moonbat Working for animals? Just bootiful A good days hunting An interest in land Signs of the times Not in my name But what about the vultures? How green was my volley Having fun is hard work A picnic for predators The mythology of land reform First blood to Glen Tilt Let there be (less) light It's later than you think Part Four 2013–2015 Part Five 2016–2017

Reviews

The book's piecemeal format enables the reader to dip in and out for ten-minute morsels of entertainment, but it's all too easy to keep on gorging on his pithy prose. The writing keeps you hungry for more. I couldn't tear myself away. * British Association of Shooting & Conservation magazine * His pieces are stimulating and frequently irreverent, and have on occasion put him in deeper water than is comfortable even when goose shooting or crawling up a soggy burn while deer stalking. A polemic, yes. But Sharpshooter is also evocative and no reader can escape Alasdair's knowledge, understanding and love for the countryside and the sport it offers. Bringing the best of these articles together in one volume, is rather like getting all the chocolates in the box at once. * Keeping the Balance, NGO * Sharpshooter is a wonderful journey with one of fieldsports' most fertile minds. -- Patrick Galbraith * Shooting Times * Not one to shy away from controversy or controversial topics, during his career as a sporting journalist, Mitchell has often given both barrels to politicians, bureaucrats, newspapers, conservation groups, countryside visitors and even vegans over their treatment and sometimes misguided comments about rural Britain. But Alasdair Mitchell is more than just a sporting journalist, he is a country pursuits and country life writer par excellance with a wicked sense of humour and self parody. His evocative descriptions of his personal experiences of shooting and hunting game in various locations around the world allows the reader to easily visualise being there beside him in the hide or under the African thorn bush. The book's striking hard covered design is as attractive as it is unusual. The fact that there are no photographs in Sharpshooter does not detract from its overall appeal. This book is all about Mitchell's take on topical subjects and the power, enlightenment and joy of the written word. Another excellent read published by Quiller in conjunction with Shooting Times. -- Gary Creighton * British Country Sport * This is a collection of over 100 selected columns by Alasdair Mitchell ranging over a 20-year period. They cover all aspects of the countryside from field sports to conservation, nature and wildlife, including pest control with an amusing tale relating to catching moles! This Book will appeal to everyone with an interest in rural life and to the many thousands of readers who have followed his contributions over the years. -- Frances McKim * Pest Magazine *

Not one to shy away from controversy or controversial topics, during his career as a sporting journalist, Mitchell has often given both barrels to politicians, bureaucrats, newspapers, conservation groups, countryside visitors and even vegans over their treatment and sometimes misguided comments about rural Britain. But Alasdair Mitchell is more than just a sporting journalist, he is a country pursuits and country life writer par excellance with a wicked sense of humour and self parody. His evocative descriptions of his personal experiences of shooting and hunting game in various locations around the world allows the reader to easily visualise being there beside him in the hide or under the African thorn bush. The book's striking hard covered design is as attractive as it is unusual. The fact that there are no photographs in Sharpshooter does not detract from its overall appeal. This book is all about Mitchell's take on topical subjects and the power, enlightenment and joy of the written word. Another excellent read published by Quiller in conjunction with Shooting Times. This is a collection of over 100 selected columns by Alasdair Mitchell ranging over a 20-year period. They cover all aspects of the countryside from field sports to conservation, nature and wildlife, including pest control with an amusing tale relating to catching moles! This Book will appeal to everyone with an interest in rural life and to the many thousands of readers who have followed his contributions over the years.

This is a collection of over 100 selected columns by Alasdair Mitchell ranging over a 20-year period. They cover all aspects of the countryside from field sports to conservation, nature and wildlife, including pest control with an amusing tale relating to catching moles! This Book will appeal to everyone with an interest in rural life and to the many thousands of readers who have followed his contributions over the years. -- Frances McKim * Pest Magazine * Not one to shy away from controversy or controversial topics, during his career as a sporting journalist, Mitchell has often given “both barrels” to politicians, bureaucrats, newspapers, conservation groups, countryside visitors and even vegans over their treatment and sometimes misguided comments about rural Britain. But Alasdair Mitchell is more than just a sporting journalist, he is a country pursuits and country life writer par excellance with a wicked sense of humour and self parody. His evocative descriptions of his personal experiences of shooting and hunting game in various locations around the world allows the reader to easily visualise being there beside him in the hide or under the African thorn bush. The book’s striking hard covered design is as attractive as it is unusual. The fact that there are no photographs in Sharpshooter does not detract from its overall appeal. This book is all about Mitchell’s take on topical subjects and the power, enlightenment and joy of the written word. Another excellent read published by Quiller in conjunction with Shooting Times. -- Gary Creighton * British Country Sport * Sharpshooter is a wonderful journey with one of fieldsports’ most fertile minds. -- Patrick Galbraith * Shooting Times * His pieces are stimulating and frequently irreverent, and have on occasion put him in deeper water than is comfortable even when goose shooting or crawling up a soggy burn while deer stalking. A polemic, yes. But Sharpshooter is also evocative and no reader can escape Alasdair’s knowledge, understanding and love for the countryside and the sport it offers. Bringing the best of these articles together in one volume, is rather like getting all the chocolates in the box at once. * Keeping the Balance, NGO * The book’s piecemeal format enables the reader to dip in and out for ten-minute morsels of entertainment, but it’s all too easy to keep on gorging on his pithy prose. The writing keeps you hungry for more. I couldn’t tear myself away. * British Association of Shooting & Conservation magazine * Ex-soldier, hill farmer, stalker, wildfowler and all-round good egg, his essays address all manner of sporting, countryside and environmental topics, usually in a pretty direct, full frontal manner. From rewilding to animal rights hypocrisy, from veganism to bureaucratic incompetence, Mitchell usually goes for the jugular... blood is let, though in the nicest possible and most amusing way. Read between the lines, though, and you quickly see Mitchell is no oafish redneck. His love and understanding of Britain's wild places, or the creatures and people who inhabit them and of the management practices that have made them the special places they, is there to see on every page, as is his respect for the quarry he pursues. With an introduction by Sir Johnny Scott, here are 120 short — and a few not so short — essays on country life that will make you chuckle, and make you think. -- GD * British Deer Society *

Author Information

Alasdair Mitchell owns and lives on a remote farm situated on the barbarian side of Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland. In addition to sheep, he keeps a small herd of red deer. Married, with two children, he farms and manages land of high conservation value in a manner that is sympathetic to wildlife. In his earlier years, he was a soldier, stockbroker, PR consultant and company director. He is also a former director of BASC’s Northern Region. In 1997 he wrote his first book, Goose Shooting (9781853107931) . He has written regularly for the sporting press since then. His columns for the Shooting Times have provoked debate, amusement, appreciation and outrage in roughly equal measure.

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