Colin Didriksen

[mackem 23,691]

Might have mate,i wasn't aware that he went to Caithness for rabbits,there used to be massive amounts back in the day,not so many now I grant you.

[The one 8,396]

Think one of his books was about killing large amounts of rabbits up there i think Brian  Brinden  went for the same reason  dont think we will ever know the real reason he left a  good greyhound  kennel set up at crawford john  to head north 

[mackem 23,691]

2 minutes ago, The one said:

Think one of his books was about killing large amounts of rabbits up there i think Brian  Brinden  went for the same reason  dont think we will ever know the real reason he left a  good greyhound  kennel set up at crawford john  to head north 

Every man and his dog headed north after Tommy McPhee put pics in SN,one of the shooting news writers,a Scottish guy from Edinburgh or Glasgow was he a plasterer?He also went up,moved lock,stock,and barrel for a bunny.

[The one 8,396]

Think Caithness was to  Scotland what the dales where to England  its okay moving for a lot of rabbits if that's your thing  but there's not much else up there to support you  , and the closest game dealers might be Perth   and after you've paid them petrol money  you would need to be killing thousands of rabbits 

[mackem 23,691]

There was always plenty to go at,but no way enough to uproot a family and head north for life,winters are tedium,you would have to do something else to occupy your mind or you would go nuts.

[The one 8,396]

Type in Employment in Caithness 2 trainee driving instructors , two trainee personal trainers and a delivery driver  . probably earn enough to live on , But would writing his books pay him that much 30 years ago and its rumoured he never sold pups gifted them away instead 

[mackem 23,691]

2 minutes ago, The one said:

Type in Employment in Caithness 2 trainee driving instructors , two trainee personal trainers and a delivery driver  . probably earn enough to live on , But would writing his books pay him that much 30 years ago and its rumoured he never sold pups gifted them away instead 

Maybe his teaching pension was enough for a single guy if his mortgage was tiny,and his book royalties as he had a captive market back then,choice was limited.

[stumfelter 3,032]

4 minutes ago, mackem said:

Maybe his teaching pension was enough for a single guy if his mortgage was tiny,and his book royalties as he had a captive market back then,choice was limited.

In the book he was making money from catching crabs and lobsters and later on fishing, he also had some rich bird living with him for some of it.

[The one 8,396]

Last year we went up the east side round the top and down the west side  there was still good numbers of rabbits in pockets but the estates  where mostly culling deer and no bothered about rabbit numbers as i would  go up for a long weekend  every 6 weeks or so if i could of got permission 

I think by the time he got up there he was hiding from something as where he was , was remote enough  but to move lock stock and barrel up there   and its a young mans game trying to earn enough crabbing etc from a rowing boat as he said he had setting nets and feeding his dogs and pigs on dogfish  makes good reading though 

[tatsblisters 7,916]

1 hour ago, mackem said:

Maybe his teaching pension was enough for a single guy if his mortgage was tiny,and his book royalties as he had a captive market back then,choice was limited.

Would have thought he got sickness benefit aswell with the heart attacks he had suffered unless that was fiction as well.

[Waz 4,203]

12 hours ago, rob284 said:

I believe some of the terriermen are based on real people in that book.

yep

[Waz 4,203]

1 hour ago, The one said:

Type in Employment in Caithness 2 trainee driving instructors , two trainee personal trainers and a delivery driver  . probably earn enough to live on , But would writing his books pay him that much 30 years ago and its rumoured he never sold pups gifted them away instead 

He told me that he wrote Lepus while using an old tea chest as a chair, so as to be able to furnish his house. Might have been Caithness. Did he not sell the white german shepherd pups for a bit of coin? 

I need to downsize, are signed Pummer books fetching much?

[rob284 1,678]

7 minutes ago, Waz said:

yep

You knew them by any chance?

[Waz 4,203]

9 hours ago, rob284 said:

You knew them by any chance?

I didnt. It mainly had one terrierman in, I didnt finish the book (didnt get on with it) so maybe more, he had good dogs in real life, but he's not around any more, meant to be a lively fella - didnt make old bones in real life.

From memory he mightve had dogs from Frank Stacey. Names come to P.B.

Edited January 4, 2018 by Waz

[DIDO.1 20,814]

There seems to be an obsession with slagging off plummer. The man is dead and gone leave him be. His son is still about and reads this tripe....do either of them deserve it really. Ernest hemmingway wrote about bullfighting and its a similar story with him....because he was the original every writer now needs to dissect his knowledge and prove they know more than him. I automatically go off a book when I come across the author slagging off a dead author. Maybe some of the criticism is true....but take harcomes insults.....he describes someone else's seeing plummer dogs kept in bad conditions.....he didn't even see it himself (no doubt someone here will confirm it as true). But so what? Leave him be, move on and write your own book. 

A huge number of us were captivated with plummer stories, he got many people into hunting and his advice did little harm. Personally I think the obsession with hard dogs has done massive harm to terrier work and books describing that have influenced people in a more damaging way.