PENDLEY AND A PACK OF HOUNDS. By Dorian Williams.

1959 1st edition. 8vo (140 x 222mm). Pp191. B/w photograph plates. Green boards, spine titled in gilt.

"Dorian Williams is well known as a show-jumping commentator and as the author of Clear Round, the story of British show-jumping. That hunting and television are two of his self-described 'four life interests' will surprise nobody. His other two concerns - Pendley and Shakespeare - are perhaps more unexpected. Pendley Manor is the family home which the author's vision turned into an adult education centre, and he is himself Director of Pendley's annual Shakespeare Festival, producing each year one of the plays presented. This ...book [tells] of the continuous struggle to keep Pendley on its feet, and of the author's passionate love of horses and hunting." The Pendley Shakepseare Festival is still going strong, 2016 being the 67th. Chapters include: Part I - Pendley: Entry in a diary; The plan matures; Against the clock; Eleventh hour crisis; The opening day; consolidation; In the red; Out of the blue. Part II - A Pack of Hounds: Into the scarlet; M.F.H; The opening meet; Personalities of the stables; Personality Parson; Personality Pope. Part III - Pendley and the pack of hounds: 'This green plot shall be our stage...'; Beards and bowlers; Beginner's luck; 'when sorrows come...'; High havens; The tapestry complete.