Yea, I agree with you on Monty Don - I have to turn the TV off if he comes on - he's a phoney with his cords and jerkin - I wonder if he wore them when he was in the designer jewellery business?
Mind you Jack Hargreaves was a bit of a phoney too.
I met him once - the tale is here:
http://gardeningboots.wordpress.com/2012/11/11/ha-ha-said-the-clown/
Yes I agree with you, pity that huge scarf monty don wore didnt cover his whole face, he is pretentious and self-important, jack hargreaves was a romancer who preached myths as fact, he is typical of many country writers who twist the facts to appeal to the imagination because it sounds better than telling the truth, or perhaps such writers dont know what the truth really is because of little hands on experience. In his book Old Country he repeats the oh so often told tale of poaching pheasants with a pole on a moonlit night, what a load of rubbish, they will not sit tight enough on a moonlit night for someone to get close enough with a pole and he makes no mention of the wind affecting the height at which they roost, he makes that usual mistake of the inexperienced that consider how easy it is to see a roosting bird against the moon but dont consider how easy it is for the bird to see the person, and on such light nights when one pheasant takes flight it spooks all the other pheasants close by into taking flight (because it is light enough to see hence fly) with such a loud racket it would alert any keeper for miles, he says the pheasant falls without a flutter and they can be taken so quietly, he has obviously never heard a pheasant beat its wings when pulled off its perch or heard the alarm calls of spooked pheasants, what a load of rubbish he has not got a clue and is just repeating myths told by others. I knew the author george bedson who wrote the book notorious poacher and (proud) poacher though he was he was a genuine countryman of great experience who studied things for himself and didnt repeat old wives tales as facts, now dead but I have some drawings and letters he wrote, now he was a true countryman but people seem to prefer to believe the myth.