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The Lurcher
Book by Frank Walker
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1978
About the author
Frank Walker
80 books6 followersFrank Walker is a veteran journalist. His newspaper roles have included being chief reporter for the SUN-HERALD covering defence, veterans' affairs, national security and terrorism. He's also worked on the Sydney Morning Herald, the National Times, for News Limited in New York, and for Deutsche Welle international radio in Germany.
In 2009, Hachette published his first book, The Tiger Man of Vietnam - the remarkable true story of the secret war of Captain Barry Petersen in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. It was a bestseller.
Frank followed this with his bestselling Ghost Platoon in 2012, Maralinga in 2014 and Commandos in 2015. He lives in Sydney with his family.
In 2009, Hachette published his first book, The Tiger Man of Vietnam - the remarkable true story of the secret war of Captain Barry Petersen in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. It was a bestseller.
Frank followed this with his bestselling Ghost Platoon in 2012, Maralinga in 2014 and Commandos in 2015. He lives in Sydney with his family.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
April 14, 2024
Good story, well written. Published in 1978. I thought of giving my rating one less star as some might not find it as exciting as some other dog books I might recommend, but it was engaging enough to be 5 stars for me, but not quite great enough to make it to my 'dogs-favorite-books' shelf.
Juttal (the name means dog in Romany), travels everywhere with his Gypsy owner 'Albert' in his horse drawn caravan. Albert's health is failing and wants to make one last stop to the Hambleton Hills to feel the living silence presence there. Albert has never had a better dog and says 'Don't you worry, I'll see you all right."
I only recently came to understand what is meant by a lurcher. My understanding is that it generally reflects a mixed breed with some kind of a dog like a greyhound. Here is how Juttal is described and a bit of his training:
'jJuttal was a good specimen of that crossed breed, bred by Albert himself from a vicious Greyhound and a wily Collie seven Lee Gap Fairs ago, and although in middle age Juttal still had the agility and speed of much younger dogs. The reason behind Lurcher breeding is to capture the speed of the Greyhound and the intelligence of the Collie in one animal and the experiment often works well. It had in Juttal’s case. As fast as any Afghan, he had learned Albert’s lessons quickly; not to bark when hunting, to outrun rabbits, to stalk pheasant and partridge, to leave hedgehogs alone and to guard the caravan against any strangers. Everyone other than Albert and the horse was a stranger to Juttal.'
So I haven't been around any Greyhound other than petting a few I have met on a walk, but I still vividly remember sitting on the porch with a friend when I was young with his Irish Setter. A couple of doves landing in his yard, pretty far away from what I remember, and the dog ran at them, the birds took flight, and the dog jumped up and snatched a bird out of the air and then bring it back to my friend unharmed. So I can completely believe that a quick dog could catch rabbits or game birds. I would say that would be cool to see, but I wouldn't enjoy the dog killing an animal.
Albert thinks he has more time, but...
'Juttal waited and waited and the horse slept and there were only the night-time country sounds. No food. When the clouds covered all the sky and the rain started he went under the caravan and slept.
He was awake before the sun, before the false dawn started to grey the eastern sky. Above him there were no creaking's of Albert moving, no loud, open-mouthed breathing. Juttal could only lie there on his aching belly and wait for he knew not what.'
After a while, a schoolteacher with his students going on a fieldtrip see the horse, wagon, and dog and thinks he understands dogs. 'The secret of handling dogs is courage... Dogs can smell fear. They can also smell courage and know by instinct the man who can master them. There's nothing to be afraid of.' He thinks otherwise when he crosses the invisible line that Juttal marks as the territory around the wagon.
The book goes on to say:
'It is true that dogs can detect fear in a human: it is not true that every dog will bow the knee in the face of courage and lower its colours any more than every lion will waive it's attack because it can hear the strains of Mendelssohn’s Spring Song. Animals are as individual as man with all the traits of bravery and cowardice.'
The horse wanders away when it gets thirsty. After a faulty attempt to get the dog, they instead come back later when the dog is gone and take the wagon and Albert's body away.
'His sharp trot covered many miles. He rejoined the drove-road far to the north of the campsite and made his wav home in the late afternoon, but when he got there there was no home. The caravan had gone, there was only the cold dead fireplace with its black ashes. The disappearance of the horse had not bothered him too much but this was a disaster. He looked all around him as if expecting the caravan to pop out from behind a bush. Then he lay down on the slightly lighter patch of grass where the caravan had stood.
In his simple thought process he was at a loss. Roamers he and Albert were, always just arriving or just leaving somewhere, following the great circle up through the land of the lakes, the big sweep through the hills to the east and down again over the wide moors to the country that was heavily farmed and into the area of towns and cities to where the fair was held. The only place of permanence was the home on wheels and now that was gone, Albert, the horse, the caravan. Juttal had no anchor.'
Borrowing a bit from my GR friend Karen's style - What will happen to Juttal? Who will catch him? Will it be the kindly man in the RSPCA?
'Graham Maxwell had been with the RSPCA for most of his working life. His job was not work to him and if he had been a rich man he would have been happy to spend his time helping animals free of charge. He had a rare affinity with animals that came from his love of all living creatures from a daisy to a whale. He knew what was most likely to happen to Juttal when he caught him. No one would want an abandoned gipsy dog especially as he was getting on in years — eight, seven at least and full of what most folk would call bad habits, and as he would be unclaimed there was but one alternative... there were too many unwanted dogs in the world already. But that would be kinder than letting run wild and turn into a real menace. It was often a question of what was the kindest of limited alternatives.'
Or will he be captured by Pecker, a wily poacher, who also is an expert dog handler?
Or if Juttal is tempted to kill a lamb will the farmers kill him?
'Through the eyes of a hillfarmer the situation had reached a stage of emergency. No flock could be counted as safe while the outlaw was at large, every shepherd carried his gun and firearms went into car boots and dangled from jolting tractor seats. Stricter watch was kept on the flocks and the shepherds stayed with them on grazing that had always been safe.
And Juttal became famous or infamous according to whether a man was a sheep farmer or fireside reader of newspapers. With not much happening in Parliament and the close season football transfer market unusually quiet the local Press seized on the saga of the ‘four-legged pirate’ as a welcome space-filler. The national dailies and giant Sunday newspapers took the lead from their provincial colleagues and unknowledgeable journalists made the common mistakes. One renowned columnist had it that Juttal was outwitting his hunters, another that the dog was taking some kind of revenge. He was described as a ghost dog, a wraith, a canine commando who came from nowhere and vanished into the ground after a raid. The close season football transfer market unusually quiet the local Press seized on the saga of the ‘four-legged pirate’ as a welcome space-filler. The national dailies and giant Sunday newspapers took the lead from their provincial colleagues and unknowledgeable journalists made the common mistakes. One renowned columnist had it that Juttal was outwitting his hunters, another that the dog was taking some kind of revenge. He was described as a ghost dog, a wraith, a canine commando who came from nowhere and vanished into the ground after a raid. '
So I don't really like most books where the dog has to learn to live in the wild. Most of the time it is different contrived lucky finds to help feed the dog, or the dog sees another animal do get food that helps the dog learn to hunt. In this book, the dogs taking of rabbits and game birds seems perfectly natural.
Chapters on the dogs comings and goings are interspersed with chapters on the main characters in the book and their attempts to capture or tame him. The saga of the dog and pursuit by the people is what makes the book interesting.
The book is also set in what seems to be the most beautiful countryside in the world, although the dog of course doesn't take any notice. I would tell someone who would be reading the book maybe to look up google images of the areas described.
One of the best aspects is that there is no anthropomorphism. The tale of the dog is told in the way you would expect from a dog. No grudges, no emotion, just doing the best with whatever cards he is dealt.
'Experience had taught him that there was only one trustworthy man, and now he was gone it was Juttal versus the world. This was not a strange or improper state of affairs, it was simply the way things were, he hunted rabbits and birds and men hunted him.'
As I said, nice story, and I love books from the UK.
Juttal (the name means dog in Romany), travels everywhere with his Gypsy owner 'Albert' in his horse drawn caravan. Albert's health is failing and wants to make one last stop to the Hambleton Hills to feel the living silence presence there. Albert has never had a better dog and says 'Don't you worry, I'll see you all right."
I only recently came to understand what is meant by a lurcher. My understanding is that it generally reflects a mixed breed with some kind of a dog like a greyhound. Here is how Juttal is described and a bit of his training:
'jJuttal was a good specimen of that crossed breed, bred by Albert himself from a vicious Greyhound and a wily Collie seven Lee Gap Fairs ago, and although in middle age Juttal still had the agility and speed of much younger dogs. The reason behind Lurcher breeding is to capture the speed of the Greyhound and the intelligence of the Collie in one animal and the experiment often works well. It had in Juttal’s case. As fast as any Afghan, he had learned Albert’s lessons quickly; not to bark when hunting, to outrun rabbits, to stalk pheasant and partridge, to leave hedgehogs alone and to guard the caravan against any strangers. Everyone other than Albert and the horse was a stranger to Juttal.'
So I haven't been around any Greyhound other than petting a few I have met on a walk, but I still vividly remember sitting on the porch with a friend when I was young with his Irish Setter. A couple of doves landing in his yard, pretty far away from what I remember, and the dog ran at them, the birds took flight, and the dog jumped up and snatched a bird out of the air and then bring it back to my friend unharmed. So I can completely believe that a quick dog could catch rabbits or game birds. I would say that would be cool to see, but I wouldn't enjoy the dog killing an animal.
Albert thinks he has more time, but...
'Juttal waited and waited and the horse slept and there were only the night-time country sounds. No food. When the clouds covered all the sky and the rain started he went under the caravan and slept.
He was awake before the sun, before the false dawn started to grey the eastern sky. Above him there were no creaking's of Albert moving, no loud, open-mouthed breathing. Juttal could only lie there on his aching belly and wait for he knew not what.'
After a while, a schoolteacher with his students going on a fieldtrip see the horse, wagon, and dog and thinks he understands dogs. 'The secret of handling dogs is courage... Dogs can smell fear. They can also smell courage and know by instinct the man who can master them. There's nothing to be afraid of.' He thinks otherwise when he crosses the invisible line that Juttal marks as the territory around the wagon.
The book goes on to say:
'It is true that dogs can detect fear in a human: it is not true that every dog will bow the knee in the face of courage and lower its colours any more than every lion will waive it's attack because it can hear the strains of Mendelssohn’s Spring Song. Animals are as individual as man with all the traits of bravery and cowardice.'
The horse wanders away when it gets thirsty. After a faulty attempt to get the dog, they instead come back later when the dog is gone and take the wagon and Albert's body away.
'His sharp trot covered many miles. He rejoined the drove-road far to the north of the campsite and made his wav home in the late afternoon, but when he got there there was no home. The caravan had gone, there was only the cold dead fireplace with its black ashes. The disappearance of the horse had not bothered him too much but this was a disaster. He looked all around him as if expecting the caravan to pop out from behind a bush. Then he lay down on the slightly lighter patch of grass where the caravan had stood.
In his simple thought process he was at a loss. Roamers he and Albert were, always just arriving or just leaving somewhere, following the great circle up through the land of the lakes, the big sweep through the hills to the east and down again over the wide moors to the country that was heavily farmed and into the area of towns and cities to where the fair was held. The only place of permanence was the home on wheels and now that was gone, Albert, the horse, the caravan. Juttal had no anchor.'
Borrowing a bit from my GR friend Karen's style - What will happen to Juttal? Who will catch him? Will it be the kindly man in the RSPCA?
'Graham Maxwell had been with the RSPCA for most of his working life. His job was not work to him and if he had been a rich man he would have been happy to spend his time helping animals free of charge. He had a rare affinity with animals that came from his love of all living creatures from a daisy to a whale. He knew what was most likely to happen to Juttal when he caught him. No one would want an abandoned gipsy dog especially as he was getting on in years — eight, seven at least and full of what most folk would call bad habits, and as he would be unclaimed there was but one alternative... there were too many unwanted dogs in the world already. But that would be kinder than letting run wild and turn into a real menace. It was often a question of what was the kindest of limited alternatives.'
Or will he be captured by Pecker, a wily poacher, who also is an expert dog handler?
Or if Juttal is tempted to kill a lamb will the farmers kill him?
'Through the eyes of a hillfarmer the situation had reached a stage of emergency. No flock could be counted as safe while the outlaw was at large, every shepherd carried his gun and firearms went into car boots and dangled from jolting tractor seats. Stricter watch was kept on the flocks and the shepherds stayed with them on grazing that had always been safe.
And Juttal became famous or infamous according to whether a man was a sheep farmer or fireside reader of newspapers. With not much happening in Parliament and the close season football transfer market unusually quiet the local Press seized on the saga of the ‘four-legged pirate’ as a welcome space-filler. The national dailies and giant Sunday newspapers took the lead from their provincial colleagues and unknowledgeable journalists made the common mistakes. One renowned columnist had it that Juttal was outwitting his hunters, another that the dog was taking some kind of revenge. He was described as a ghost dog, a wraith, a canine commando who came from nowhere and vanished into the ground after a raid. The close season football transfer market unusually quiet the local Press seized on the saga of the ‘four-legged pirate’ as a welcome space-filler. The national dailies and giant Sunday newspapers took the lead from their provincial colleagues and unknowledgeable journalists made the common mistakes. One renowned columnist had it that Juttal was outwitting his hunters, another that the dog was taking some kind of revenge. He was described as a ghost dog, a wraith, a canine commando who came from nowhere and vanished into the ground after a raid. '
So I don't really like most books where the dog has to learn to live in the wild. Most of the time it is different contrived lucky finds to help feed the dog, or the dog sees another animal do get food that helps the dog learn to hunt. In this book, the dogs taking of rabbits and game birds seems perfectly natural.
Chapters on the dogs comings and goings are interspersed with chapters on the main characters in the book and their attempts to capture or tame him. The saga of the dog and pursuit by the people is what makes the book interesting.
The book is also set in what seems to be the most beautiful countryside in the world, although the dog of course doesn't take any notice. I would tell someone who would be reading the book maybe to look up google images of the areas described.
One of the best aspects is that there is no anthropomorphism. The tale of the dog is told in the way you would expect from a dog. No grudges, no emotion, just doing the best with whatever cards he is dealt.
'Experience had taught him that there was only one trustworthy man, and now he was gone it was Juttal versus the world. This was not a strange or improper state of affairs, it was simply the way things were, he hunted rabbits and birds and men hunted him.'
As I said, nice story, and I love books from the UK.
Displaying 1 of 1 review