Jane McIlvaine McClary

Here's another book to add to my "Why didn't I read this before???!" category.

Whether or not you are a fan of horse sports you might enjoy this biography of the rider Tommy Smith, and his mount Jay Trump, who together won the Grand National steeplechase in 1965. The author gives us the high society beginnings of Tommy contrasting with the hard-luck short track racing origin of Jay Trump. It's well-written, interesting, and intriguing enough to keep the reader up past bedtime. I'm keeping this one.… (more)

I am not usually a big fan of "romance" stories, but this is one of my all time favorite books. I first found a paperback copy at a garage sale and bought it only because it had a hunter and foxhound on the cover. When I had completely worn that book out so that it was a pile of loose pages held together with rubber bands, I found a used hard-back edition on Abe books and that is the one currently in my collection.

The story is not all that unusual, but the telling is done well. The main character is the last of an "olde money" family and original members of The Hunt. She falls in love with a non-horsey person and they move back to the ancestral home in the heart of hunting country. The conflict is provided in the form of "new people" moving into the area and trying to buy their way into The Hunt. It's a regular soap-opera of half-siblings, illegimate offspring, adultery and boys' club dealings.

The best part of the book, to me, is the authority with which the author writes about the equestrian aspect. If she isn't a rider, she sure did her research well!

If you like horsey romances and run across a copy in a used book store, give it a try!… (more)