David Edelsten - Telegraph Edelsten commanded his own regiment in Hohne, Germany, and, promoted brigadier, was vice-president of the Regular Commissions Board (RCB) at Westbury. In 1987 he retired from the Army to return to the Dorset home of his childhood, which he had inherited on his father's death. He joined the Somerset Council On Alcohol And Drugs (SCAD), a charity that helped addicts in the region. As its director, he displayed considerable compassion and was appreciated for his non-judgmental attitude. SCAD was later taken over by a national organisation, Turning Point. He began writing in 1991, launching a 12-year spell as diarist for Country Life. He soon branched out into hunting reports, also becoming the magazine's polo correspondent and a book reviewer. Soon he was also writing regularly for The Field and Horse & Hound. His diary pieces formed the basis of three books: Dorset Diaries (2004), More Dorset Diaries (2005) and Last Dorset Diaries (2008). Two other books about the country followed: Autumn Leaves and Golden Days (2011) and Hoof-Beats Through My Heart. In his own words, all the books comprised observations of "the small patch of Dorset that is within riding distance." Edelsten encouraged anti-hunt campaigners to read them. "I am a great believer in the two factions trying to understand and to respect each other," he said. Somewhat hard-of-hearing in later life, he took extra care to pick out the sounds of the landscape around him."If I were to be entirely deaf," he once wrote, "I think I would miss more than any other sound, that of the wind in the trees, particularly after dark." He was a talented chess and bridge player, and his favourite novelists were Thomas Hardy and Jane Austen. He was also a member of the Surtees Society. David Edelsten's first marriage, to Gillian, was dissolved in 1977. He is survived by his second wife, Diana, and two stepdaughters, as well as by two sons of his first marriage. Brigadier David Edelsten, born March 13 1933, died February 2 2012