The etiquette surrounding shooting invitations can be difficult to negotiate. There is something about a shooting invitation that distinguishes it from all other forms of communication. For a start, it is usually received with the greatest of pleasure. Even if it is not possible to accept, always regrettable, it is…
There is a scene in AG Macdonell’s classic post-First World War comedy novel England, Their England when the protagonist, a Fleet Street journalist, is invited to a grand Kent house-party weekend. To impress his hosts, he primes a colleague to ring during dinner, pretending to be the Prime Minister and…
Many years ago an old friend suggested that my wife and I might like to stay with him in his house in Devon during a brief visit to the West Country. Looking back, I still feel guilty that, after accepting his kind offer, I failed to mention that we would…
Shooting etiquette has slipped for Robert Gibbons. Butlers serving champagne, pins badly placed, dogs despatched during drives and too many guns have all rankled him in the past. But are these simply the new shooting etiquette standards, and something that he must get used to? For etiquette on a horse…
