Only Fraud and Horses

Author David Smith’s childhood near London, England, helped pave the way for the young boy to plough his own furrow in life. In Only Fraud and Horses, Smith narrates his story which includes pieces of history, police, and horsemanship. In this memoir, Smith offers a humorous and poetic account of his skills, training, and professional positions from cadet to London policeman and to Scotland Yard detective and specialist. Only Fraud and Horses also shares representative sports details, contrasts Smith’s Scots ancestry, and links developing European history, the long dependence upon the horse, and his inherited skills as a competitive, natural horseman. With photographs and historical notes included, Smith reviews a lifetime collection of family records and shares his discoveries—starting from England with surnames of Smith and Brown and going back to the 1700s in the Highlands of Scotland before Mediterranean origins.