More on A Christmas Cracker

Careful readers, periodically take pot shots at my reluctance to honor one of the stated goals of this blog, to point out the ways men and women differ. I plead guilty, with reservations. A greater fools errand than that I'd never invented. Then I came across this little gem in "The Illustrated Christmas Cracker", edited by J. J. Norwich.

Included is the following, a book review, unattributed but clearly written by a woman.

A book review from the American magazine Field and Stream, November 1959:

Although written many years ago, Lady Chatterley's Lover has just been re-issued by Grove Press, and this fictional account of the day-to-day life of an English game-keeper is still of considerable interest to outdoor-minded readers, as it contains many passages on pheasant raising, the apprehending of poachers, ways to control vermin, and other chores and duties of the professional game-keeper.

Unfortunately, one is obliged to wade through many pages of extraneous material in order to discover and savour these sidelights on the management of a Midland shooting estate, and in this reviewers opinion, the book cannot take the place of J.R. Miller's "Practical Gamekeeper".

I had to dust off my ancient copy of this edition to give this review its due, but clearly, any male reviewer wouldn't be so quick, or so insensitive as to dismiss the extraneous bits.

I trust this will quiet the madding crowd for a while.

Toad