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Diana Pullein-Thompson story collections

by Diana Pullein-Thompson

A collection of classic stories, both realistic and fanciful, about horses and ponies.

Genres: Animals, Anthologies

Hardcover

First published September 15, 1999

About the author

The Pullein-Thompson sisters — Josephine Pullein-Thompson MBE (3 April 1924-[1]), Diana Pullein-Thompson (born 1 October 1925) [2] and Christine Pullein-Thompson (1 October 1925–2 December 2005[2] — are British writers of several horse and pony books (mostly fictional) aimed at children and mostly popular with girls. They started at a very young age (initially writing collectively) and they were at their peak in the 1950s and 1960s, but their popularity has endured. They have written a collective autobiography Fair Girls and Grey Horses.

All 3 sisters have written at least 1 book under a different name; Josephine wrote 1 under the pseudonym of Josephine Mann, Diana 3 books under her married name of Diana Farr and Christine wrote 2 books under the name of Christine Keir.

Their mother, Joanna Cannan (1898–1961), sister of the poet May Cannan, wrote similar equestrian stories, but is better known for detective mysteries.

Reviews

[Suzanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Can someone please tell the illustrator what a bay horse looks like?
Many of the stories stopped in an awkward place, and several of them were kind of depressing.

[Rena Sherwood · Rating 2 out of 5]

Here's a plea from a horse book lover to all illustrators of horse books: If you are going to put in the work of doing detailed illustrations for horse stories, couldn't you take ten seconds to find out what COLOR the horse in your story is supposed to be? The paragraph right next to "The Champions" states that the horses are dapple greys -- and the illustration right next to it shows a blue roan and bay.

How dumb do the illustrators and editors think their readers are -- even if the majority are kids?

And a note to editors of horse story anthologies: If you are going to make explanations in brackets, please make sure they are correct. In "My Friend Flicka", Howard is identified as a ranch hand. He's not. As anyone who has fallen in love with the story or novel can tell you, Howard is the BROTHER. Big freaking difference. And the detail was so minor (Howard appears in just one sentence in the selection) that why bother trying to explain it in the first place? Even more annoying -- Flicka is drawn as a bay.

It's details like this that made Classic Horse and Pony Stories extremely frustrating. Avoid it.



Stories include:

* "Live Cargo" by Marguerite Henry. Introduction from Misty of Chincoteague that has appeared in other anthologies under different titles.
* "Born in the Wild Wind" by Elyne Mitchell. Excerpt from The Silver Brumby.
* "Pegasus" by Robert Lanclyn Green. Same old story of battling the Chimera, originally "The Prince and the Flying Horse" from the book Old Greek Fairy Stories.
* "A Foal for Candy" by the editor of this anthology. Excerpt from the book of the same name. Apparently, based on a real foaling.
* "My Breaking In" by Anna Sewell. Gotta have a chapter from Black Beauty in any UK horse story anthology.
* "The White Knight" by Lewis Carrol. Excerpt from Alice Through the Looking Glass. No idea why this was included.
* "The Champions" by Monica Edwards. Apparently, this is not from a book.
* "Post Time" by Walter Farley. Excerpt from The Black Stallion and the Girl. The Black races at Aqueduct.
* "My Friend Flicka" by Mary O'Hara. Aforementioned excerpt from the book.
* "Jill's Gymkhana" by Ruby Ferguson. No relation to Craig, sadly. Yet another extract from a book with the same title. Predictable stuff.
* "The First Man on Mancha's Back" by A. F. Tschiffley. Excerpt from A Tale of Two Horses, told from Mancha's point of view. At least this one seems to not be in other anthologies.