Am re-reading this…can anyone identify the characters with their real life counterparts? It was before my time!
Me too! This is one of my favorite “anticipation of autumn” re-reads every year. I would love to know more about the location, people, politics, etc. that anyone can share.
Thirded! 
I loff this book.
Real?!!!
Gosh I didn’t know there WERE any real life counterparts! But if you think about it…there’s a LOT of possible candidates for the starring rolls! Just think of someone and plug them in mentally!!
Hey! Plug ME in for the gorgeous female hunt member who’s well mounted and a good rider!!! Yeah! That’d work!!! :winkgrin: Oh yeah…and I jump like that too!!! 
Good book I thought.
weeeeeeeee!
who wrote it? I’m always on the lookout for a good foxhunting read.
Gawd, it’s been years since I read that. Might want to read it again. Author, please? Easier to look up on Amazon.com that way. 
Also, for those of you who are fans, Rita Mae Brown’s “Riding Shotgun” is a cool, foxhunt-ish read. If you’re a Diana Gabaldon fan as well, you’ll love this book. :winkgrin:
I found it dated, depressing and thought the plot line wandered. I thought you could tell the author worked on it on and off for nearly a decade - the seams definitely showed, IMO. It’s not something I’d read again.
Of course, I’m not a fox hunter (yet) so maybe I just didn’t get it.
ETA: The author’s name is Jane McIlvaine McClary.
I got the impression she was not a native southerner, both from the book jacket bio and some of the things in the book. Maybe that’s why I didn’t care for the book - it was set during a fairly difficult time in our history and I didn’t think she captured the southern voice very well. More of a caricature. Anyway, I’m curious - does anyone know the “real-life” events/people on which the novel was based?
I dunno much bout the book other than what I’ve gleamed from reviews and blurbs here and there but Middleburg and the surrounding area is just ripe for some sort of movie.
They should make it a movie!
It would be a great book to turn into a movie wouldn’t it. Even if you took out the heavy civil rights activity and just focused on the class structure and “the glory days” of foxhunting with grooms, servants, balls, big farms, and people named ‘Dinkie’. The Gosford Park of the 1920-1940’s. I’d go see it. Who doesn’t love class struggle, pretty women, rakish men, fast horses, whiskey, and secret affairs!
She wrote a lot of books for horse crazy girls too.
I think they could easily do a dramatic series about life in and around The Burg. A show that revolved around a fictitious Hunt and the lives of various assorted characters. Coming up with plots would be easy but all that location shooting could be difficult if you did a lot of focusing on what goes on in the fields.
[QUOTE=LexInVA;4354886]
I think they could easily do a dramatic series about life in and around The Burg. A show that revolved around a fictitious Hunt and the lives of various assorted characters. Coming up with plots would be easy but all that location shooting could be difficult if you did a lot of focusing on what goes on in the fields.[/QUOTE]
Ohh a night time soap?? More raunchy than the day time versions. Like Dallas, only better! (well everything in Va is better:cool:)
The kind of thing you’d find on HBO/Showtime/Cinemax would be what I would want to see. Something with the dramatic level of Dexter or the Sopranos and the “fly on the wall” authenticity of “Entourage” but not gratuitously raunchy in a sleazy way such as nip/tuck has become with it’s sexual content. I would want to see dysfunctional relationships between people but not have it be seriously “soapy” like a daytime soap. It has to have that good day/bad day feel to it. I’d have the lower-class natives (yes there are a lot of less than wealthy people in and around The Burg) interacting with the upper-crust society but have it focus more on the dynamics between them and what they take from one another in life. Throw in a little upper/lower romance with some controversy on both sides and I think it would be an interesting show.
Like a Jilly Cooper novel! The plot already has the elements…poor little girl from a once wealthy family that lost it all. Rich man to have an affair with while the loyal husband stays home and pays the bills. “Friends” that aren’t really friends. A hunt full of characters, a horse race, gambling. I think Showtime should produce it and make it as visually interesting as The Tudors.
It’s been a bit since I read it, but let me see what I can remember from it…
“THE HUNT” is based on a mixture of Middleburg, Orange County, and Piedmont.
The lady with the dog that she takes everywhere is based on Liz Whitney Tippet (who owned Llangollen), as she also kept her dogs that died in the freezer.
The racecourse that got built by the Z-guy is based on Glenwood Park.
I’d have to re-read it to remember the others…
[QUOTE=SidesaddleRider;4355274]
The lady with the dog that she takes everywhere is based on Liz Whitney Tippet (who owned Llangollen), as she also kept her dogs that died in the freezer.[/QUOTE]
That’s just creepy - did she have special freezers for this or did they hang out next to the venison?
I haven’t read A Portion For Foxes - I bought my wife a copy after reading Michael Korda’s “Horse People” (a terrific book in its own right - he was the editor for A Portion For Foxes), but she declared that I probably wouldn’t like it and that’s good enough for me.
If we’re writing screen plays however, why not a Masterpiece Theater or Mystery treatment (you know, a 5 or 6 installment “mini-series”) of Sister Jane? Far better than Miss Marple, if you ask me. I wonder how well Judy Dench rides?
Or, why can’t someone do old Gordon Grand stuff? Col Weatherford’s Young Entry is among my favorites of all time and The Training of Kerry’s Own is a movie just waiting to happen.
My favorite!!!
I have the book here as well and knew it was loosely based on real circumstances.
If I recall Michael Korda’s comments correctly the author was from Middleburg and the publication of the book caused quite a stir because at the time the characters were fairly easy to identify. I might be wrong but I think that is what I read.
Oh, yes indeedy. I’d have to read it again, been a while, but I recognized a few myself, and have a hunting friend who can name them ALL for you!
Jane McClary was the author.
