Somerville Press is a book publisher based near Bantry , West Cork , Ireland. Our publishing programme incorporates both fiction and non-fiction, mainly of Irish interest. We also distribute various titles for other publishers.
GALLOPING THROUGH LIFE charts the author’s enchanting childhood in rural Ireland, his time at Eton and Sandhurst, and his career as a young cavalry officer in the 10th Hussars where he made his name both as an amateur jockey in both point-to-point and National Hunt racing and as a show-jumper. It also introduces the reader to the glamorous world of international polo and famous players such as the author’s two polo-playing first cousins the Marquis of Waterford, and Lord Patrick Beresford, and also to the author’s close friend the late Major Ronald Ferguson, a fellow technical advisor to Jilly Cooper’s Polo. His subsequent career as a polo player and coach took him to such diverse locations as India, East Africa, Cyprus, South America, Central America and Hawaii, but most importantly Palm Beach, Florida, where he taught for many years. His greatest achievement, however, was the residential Whitfield Court Polo School in County Waterford. This was where people from all over the world gathered to learn Hugh Dawnay’s revolutionary polo playing techniques.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY:
Major Hugh Dawnay was born in Lucknow, India in 1932, the twin son of an Olympic polo player serving in the British Army. He was educated at Eton and Sandhurst, before being commissioned into the 10th Hussars. He immediately embarked on a highly successful career with horses, incorporating point-to-points, National Hunt racing, show-jumping and ultimately polo and went on to captain the British Army polo team. He became an internationally famous polo coach and in 1976 set up the world’s first residential polo school at Whitfield Court in County Waterford. The Polo School ran for 27 years. He also spent many summers teaching polo in the Palm Beach Polo Club, Florida. He was the author of Polo Vision and Playmaker Polo (J.A. Allen). He died in Waterford in 2013, and is survived by his Argentinian wife, Maria-Ines and two sons. His younger son, Sebastian, is a professional polo player.
We are based in Dromore, Bantry, Co. Cork, Ireland. We can be contacted by telephone on 00353 (0) 28 32873 or 00353 (0) 87 233 1970, and by email at somervillepress@gmail.com
Our books are distributed in the UK by Central Books, 50 Freshwater Rd, London RM8 1RX, and in the US by Casemate, 1950 Lawrence Road, Haverton PA 19083.
Somerville Press also incorporates RUSSELL BOOK REPRESENTATION, a publishers' sales agency covering the whole of Ireland. The publishers we represent include Hurst Publishers (www.hurstpublishers.com), W.W. Norton & Company Ltd. (www.wwnorton co.uk) and Reaktion Books Ltd. (www.reaktionbooks.co.uk).