The poaching wars between peasant and landowner resulted in men being murdered, transported and executed for the sake of a rabbit or pheasant. The game-law struggle engaged English writers from Crabbe to Kipling and politicians from Cobbett and Bright to Joseph Chamberlain and Lloyd George. Focusing on social rank and landed power, the conflict throws a penetrating light on shifting patterns of power and class alliance in Britain, and on the often harsh realities of rural life and justice in the last two centuries...