Britain has a long tradition of great naturalists—Wallace, Huxley, Spruce, several Darwins—and an even longer tradition of strangely lucid eccentrics. Tales Of A Rat-Hunting Man sits squarely where these traditions cross. D. Brian Plummer, as you might guess from the title, hunts rats, has hunted them since grade school, and is an expert on the brown rat (rattus norvegicus). Tales Of A Rat-Hunting Man has many pages of rat lore: diseases, poisons, family life, the Victorian mania for rat-fighting, how not to torch a rat den. But Plummer enjoys the hunt as much as the rat, and seeks to transmit his enthusiasm, providing tips on how to train your ferret or terrier to bolt and kill rats. The whole thing is told in a jaunty British working-stiff idiolect reminiscent of Roald Dahl, especially during the stories of poachers, bettors, and the maggot-factories of South Yorkshire. Consequently, when Plummer concludes, "Life sure is tough for a rat-hunting man," it's easy to disbelieve him.