Book Review by Martha A. Woodham
The Owl and the Earl, Paul Smith, Silverwood Books, 2014, Paperback, 198 pages, $14.95As the newest Master of the Blankshire Hunt, our hero of The Owl and the Earl, Hector Griffiths, inadvertently steps into what is known as a “sticky wicket” when he is tapped to raise funds to build a new stable for the hunt.
Threatening to sabotage the fund raising is a rivalry between old money and new. The family of Lord Blankshire, the Hon. Alexander Bichester, came over with the Normans. By comparison, the fifth Earl of Melsham, aka “Sid,” is practically nouveau riche. Sid, known locally—but only behind his back—as “the belted earl,” likes to stick it to Alex every chance he gets, leaving poor Alex, a gentle soul, flummoxed, frustrated, and a bit peeved.
Hector enlists the Blankshire Hunt members in the fund raising efforts, but they fall far short of their goal of £35,000. After the belted earl refuses to ante-up for the cause, Hector decides to hold an auction, with the top prize a day of shooting on the belted earl’s estate, plus lunch, dinner, and a £2,000 donation.
But how to get the tight-fisted earl to donate that prize? Hector uses the rivalry between the two men to trick the belted earl into a wager: a shooting match between the belted earl, a very good shot, and Alex, a fair shot. If Alex wins, the belted earl will donate the day of shooting on his estate as the auction prize; if the belted earl wins, then Hector is on the hook to pay the belted earl for his “donation.”
But Hector has a card up his sleeve: one Albert Holloway, a larger-than-life character who is an international sporting legend, a world shooting champion seven times over and a man with a few tricks of his own.
Author Paul Smith is not only a foxhunting man, but also a keen shot when his hunt meet card allows. In The Owl and the Earl, he writes of chasing foxes and shooting birds with knowledge and authority—and quite a bit of wit. Over the past twenty-five years or so he has hunted with crack Yorkshire hunts. He had the pleasure of joining the Mastership of the Middleton Hunt (UK) that dates back to 1726, serving as Master from 2009 to 2013.
Smith, with tongue firmly in cheek, introduces the reader to a variety of eccentric English characters in a world that changes very slowly. He wrote this fast-paced, quite clever novel after a literary friend challenged him to turn his stories of the people he met into a book. Of course, the characters develop lives of their own, and Smith’s tale grows in the telling. It’s a lot of fun and well worth the read.
And just what is a “belted earl,” you may ask? Although it may sound like someone continually in his cups, the term refers to a common practice in medieval times—the investiture of an earl with the sword he wore at his waist by his king.
And the owl? Let’s just say Smith’s belted earl picks up a new nickname that has to do with owls and murder: “Twit twoo,” but never to his face, of course.
Posted January 31, 2016