The Sporting World of R S Surtees Author:John Welcome John Welcome introduces his subject, Robert Smith Surtees, as the greatest writer of sporting fiction in English literature. Surtees grew up accustomed to ride to hounds, and abandoned the legal profession, to pursue his sport in print. — Robert Smith Surtees (17 May 1805 – 16 March 1864) was an English editor, novelist and sporting writer,... more » widely known as R. S. Surtees. He was the second son of Anthony Surtees of Hamsterley Hall, a member of an old County Durham family. He is remembered for his invented character of Jorrocks, a vulgar but good-natured sporting cockney grocer.« less