AROUND MY HOUSE. By Ian Niall.

1973 1st edition. 8vo (142 x 223mm). Ppx,148. B/w photographs. Green boards, spine titled in gilt.

Ian Niall's observation of the wildlife (and hawks and hawking - falcons, goshawks, buzzards - and of what he learned about them and about himself. Then Ian Niall became a shepherd to his own few sheep with the idea of endless saddles of lamb and chops, - but the sheep too had their personalities which they pitted in their way against that of the shepherd. Whether writing of birds or sheep, ducks and bantams, reclaimed battery-crippled hens or a strange crossbred bird which could have been a mixture of tame and wild, Ian Niall is contantly interesting and informative. The house of the title is his cottage and Myself when young; My first affair; A hawk on my fist; A-hunting I did go; The innocent lamb; The year of the quail; Bees in my bonnet; Honey harvest; Duck-keeper; Bantams and battery birds; Pursuit of Phantams.