When the alarm went off at 3:30am, it felt as though my head had just hit the pillow. There was rain falling across the window, there was no light in the sky, and in the hall my spaniel pup was beating her tail against the side of her crate. I guess she’d noted me piling coats, binoculars and boots up the previous evening and reckoned we were going somewhere exciting. She is just starting her sporting life, but even now she knows the signs — the gun cabinet keys, cartridge bags, bottles of beer and the packet of Marlboros that always mean fishing.
“A gamekeeper recently asked me why the editor of ST lives in town”
By 4am, Jessie and I were on Walworth Road heading towards Elephant and Castle. We were on our way Hertfordshire to meet my friend Paul Childerley,
