PARSLOE, Muriel Jardine. A Parson's Daughter
PARSLOE, Muriel Jardine. A Parson's Daughter. London: Faber and Faber. 1935. 8vo. First edition. Publisher’s red cloth lettered in gilt to the spine, in the dust jacket with a charming photograph of ‘Tommy’ with her dog and a gun under her shoulder. A very good copy, the cloth clean and bright, the binding tight and very slightly rolled. Light spots to the textblock edges, the contents usually fine with odd singular spots on occasion. The dust jacket unclipped (10s 6d net), complete, gently bumped at spine head and tail, some light marks. A sharp copy.
A fascinating autobiography by this trailblazing gamekeeper, Muriel Parsloe which “proves the inexhaustible variety and interest in living people”. Parsloe was born in Yorkshire and throughout her youth, her father, a vicar, had the family move across various rectories in the south of England. She preferred to wear boys’ clothing and went by the nickname ‘Tommy’, eschewing traditional feminine roles for a life outside; she commanded great respect for her skills in hunting and shooting, becoming an expert horse-breaker—”nobody has ever had a better way with horses”, and posing as her brother while working on an Irish farm for over a year. She eventually set up her own business breaking horses for clients across Britain and for the Canadian military, living there on her own farm for several years after a spell in Australia. After her husband died in 1931, she was single-handedly working 1000 acres and living off the land in Wheathampstead, Hertfordshire, in what became known as ‘No-Man’s -Land’. In the 1931 census, Tommy was the only listed female gamekeeper in England and Wales and was a genuine trailblazer whose life undoubtedly demands more research. Scarce.
PARSLOE, Muriel Jardine. A Parson's Daughter. London: Faber and Faber. 1935. 8vo. First edition. Publisher’s red cloth lettered in gilt to the spine, in the dust jacket with a charming photograph of ‘Tommy’ with her dog and a gun under her shoulder. A very good copy, the cloth clean and bright, the binding tight and very slightly rolled. Light spots to the textblock edges, the contents usually fine with odd singular spots on occasion. The dust jacket unclipped (10s 6d net), complete, gently bumped at spine head and tail, some light marks. A sharp copy.
A fascinating autobiography by this trailblazing gamekeeper, Muriel Parsloe which “proves the inexhaustible variety and interest in living people”. Parsloe was born in Yorkshire and throughout her youth, her father, a vicar, had the family move across various rectories in the south of England. She preferred to wear boys’ clothing and went by the nickname ‘Tommy’, eschewing traditional feminine roles for a life outside; she commanded great respect for her skills in hunting and shooting, becoming an expert horse-breaker—”nobody has ever had a better way with horses”, and posing as her brother while working on an Irish farm for over a year. She eventually set up her own business breaking horses for clients across Britain and for the Canadian military, living there on her own farm for several years after a spell in Australia. After her husband died in 1931, she was single-handedly working 1000 acres and living off the land in Wheathampstead, Hertfordshire, in what became known as ‘No-Man’s -Land’. In the 1931 census, Tommy was the only listed female gamekeeper in England and Wales and was a genuine trailblazer whose life undoubtedly demands more research. Scarce.
PARSLOE, Muriel Jardine. A Parson's Daughter. London: Faber and Faber. 1935. 8vo. First edition. Publisher’s red cloth lettered in gilt to the spine, in the dust jacket with a charming photograph of ‘Tommy’ with her dog and a gun under her shoulder. A very good copy, the cloth clean and bright, the binding tight and very slightly rolled. Light spots to the textblock edges, the contents usually fine with odd singular spots on occasion. The dust jacket unclipped (10s 6d net), complete, gently bumped at spine head and tail, some light marks. A sharp copy.
A fascinating autobiography by this trailblazing gamekeeper, Muriel Parsloe which “proves the inexhaustible variety and interest in living people”. Parsloe was born in Yorkshire and throughout her youth, her father, a vicar, had the family move across various rectories in the south of England. She preferred to wear boys’ clothing and went by the nickname ‘Tommy’, eschewing traditional feminine roles for a life outside; she commanded great respect for her skills in hunting and shooting, becoming an expert horse-breaker—”nobody has ever had a better way with horses”, and posing as her brother while working on an Irish farm for over a year. She eventually set up her own business breaking horses for clients across Britain and for the Canadian military, living there on her own farm for several years after a spell in Australia. After her husband died in 1931, she was single-handedly working 1000 acres and living off the land in Wheathampstead, Hertfordshire, in what became known as ‘No-Man’s -Land’. In the 1931 census, Tommy was the only listed female gamekeeper in England and Wales and was a genuine trailblazer whose life undoubtedly demands more research. Scarce.