I choose to use the simple word as a title for this book as it suits the style of others in my series, but it is not really accurate as there are few images of the act of hunting; most show the end, the result of the hunt, and sometimes the preparation beforehand.

The principal lure that draws people to hunt now is the chase, the pursuit, the difficult task of tracking and killing whatever is the target – or rather that is what the sportsman would say – but there are many other reasons for chasing beasts, birds and fish: for food,for profitable products such as skin, fur, horn, antler, tusk, and also to eliminate enemies, pests, dangerous rivals, as farmers declare. Some have hunted to display their prowess or to escape boredom, others to exercise an obligatory right of aristocracy.

The majority of these pictures show trophies and bodies alongside triumphant individuals – many of their victims will have practised the same death-dealing skills in their own lives, but obviously lacking photographers.