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Originally posted by Will:
And I have about as much eveidence that Capstick was queer as Capstick presented that Taylor was queer. Actually, though, Capstick wrote a piece in his Taylor biography about it and never presented any evidence, including Brian Marsh's "no-evidence" opinion. The power of the press (suggestion), I guess. The Portuguese had it in for Taylor for his poaching. I suspect that is where this rumor started.
Will

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Originally posted by allen day:
The subject of John Taylor is frought with varying opinions, plus much respect, great disdain, and no small about of good-ol'-days-style romance - the full mix!. You either believed everything he wrote, rejected everything he wrote out of hand, or else you believed some of what he wrote and dismissed some of it as fabrication. I subscribe to the later position.

It's funny how guys like Taylor, who weren't universally well thought of in their heyday, become almost mythical figures who can do no wrong once they've bucked out, and every dirty deed or indisgression on their laundry list gets swept under the carpet and ignored or even justified after a fashion. That's what death often does for infamous people.......

The truth is, there are no living witnesses to Taylor's deeds, so no one's interpretation of his career is necessarily any better than anyone else's. What it all amounts to is one great big book review of sorts that's open to personal interpertation.

I'm mixed on Taylor, and I likely remain fixed in that position. Here's a sample of the sort of testimony that forces me into that position, this from page 99 of Taylor's book, "Big Game and Big Game Rifles" in the chapter entitled "Holland's .375 Magnum":

'I have several times had three buffalo dead to one bullet - heart shot. But the biggest bag of all was seven eland to one shot!'

You can bite into that little morsel if you want to and proclaim it to be part of the Holy Writ from the "good ol' days" if you want to, but I just can't.

AD

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Originally posted by zagaya:
Many adventurers in all kinds of arenas were/are gay, or at least freely admit to being open to it, experiencing it, if not still practicing it. George Mallory, the person I believe to have summited Everest first, dabbled in homosexuality but because it was so prevelant in the society of young men/schoolmasters at the time. The subject is only relevant to understanding the individual and should not in any way belittle the persons accomplishments. To the contrary, ones hidden demons often control his actions more than any obvious trait ever could and therefore unless all aspects can be reviewed and an opinion tendered from every angle, conjecture should be at best be considered unreliable even from such a 'reliable' source as an author. _Baxter

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Originally posted by ALF:
Will:

I'm in no way questioning Taylor's contribution to the world of Hunting and shooting. Like many I view his works to be the Bible of african hunting calibers though I do not always agree with some of his assumptions on certain calibers.

As to his sexual orientation I do not for one minute believe that anyone ( especially Fiona and Peter Capstick would fall into the trap of stating or inferring something in writing that has not been stated before, that amounts to liable.)

I had a long and interesting discussion with Fiona about this as she is busy ( currently in print) with a book about the women hunters of east Africa (Berryl Markham)and in this book there is ample evidence of scandal pertaining to Royals etc. The same attention to detail in research that is going into this book was done for the "Taylor book".

Many may not know of this but Fiona is as much an expert on African Hunting as her late husband, in fact I am under the impression that she may well have been the "brains" behind much of the writing as far as the research goes.

In PHC's book "a man called lion" there is reference to a doctor stating thatg the African black does not practice homosexuality,
"it's against their culture" a statement true in the sense that it's not acceptable maybe;

But definitely practiced in a big way. Ask anyone who has worked in the medical field in africa.

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