A union of poet and painter

The Irish R.M. novels are among the best-loved in hunting fiction. Liam Clancy explores the lives of their joint-authors, Edith Somerville and Violet Martin

- Edith Somerville and Violet Martin

EDITH SOMERVILLE and her cousin Violet Florence Martin were holidaying in Étaples in the summer of 1898 when they received a letter from their literary agent, JB Pinker. Over the previous nine years the cousins had collaborated on seven books, latterly to critical acclaim. Their careers looked to continue in a serious literary vein until the arrival of Pinker's letter, requesting light-hearted hunting stories for publication in The Badminton Magazine of Sports and Pastimes.

"And then heaven intervened," Edith recalled years later. "There befell a day so cold and wet that the extreme measure of staying in the house and doing some work became our only resource. Gradually we talked and argued into existence one after another of the little group of men and women who were destined to become for us intimate friends."

Thus began the trilogy of novels known today as The Irish R.M., among the most beloved sporting literature ever written. Those "intimate friends" have been entertaining hunting folk ever since. No one who has encountered them in print can forget Flurry Knox MFH, "a gentleman among stable boys and a stable boy among gentlemen", or the incorrigible Slipper, or Major Sinclair Yeates-resident magistrate and drily humorous narrator of the stories - or Peter Cadogan or Mrs Knox or a host of other vividly drawn characters.

No hunting person can remain unmoved reading the wonderful hunting scenes, following Major Yeates over the West Cork banks in the wake of Mr Knox's hounds.

No one, of course, could have been better placed to write authentic hunting stories than Edith Somerville. Her brother Aylmer had revived the flagging West Carbery in 1891, and handed over the mastership to Edith upon his retirement in 1903. She was to continue in the role until 1929.