The sort of series I am trying to cover here are those aimed specifically at pony books:  various publishers have produced libraries of cheaper editions of some of their pony titles, like Collins’ Seagull Library, but these have also included books about all sorts of things other than ponies.

There have been several publishers who have created a series of pony fiction by different authors.  One of the earliest of these was the Crown Pony Series, which featured titles published by the Lutterworth Press.  Lutterworth published titles in various libraries (the Dominion Library was another) and it isn’t particularly easy to work out in what edition a title first appeared, or if it was in the Crown Pony Library when it did.  It’s also quite difficult to work out exactly how many titles were published in the Pony Library:  they appeared both in hardback and paperback.  As far as I can see, most titles were published between the mid 1960s and 1970s. The numbering doesn’t seem particularly consistent; Pony Girl being listed both as Number 4 and Number 21!

The Lutterworth titles were mainly by authors who were mainly in the second rank.  The titles are generally good solid reads, but Monica Edwards or Ruby Ferguson they are not.  Click here for a list of titles:  and please contact me if you have more information on the series.

The Collins Pony Library titles were published in the 1970s, and mostly featured books they had already published, but in a different format.  The books were published as hardbacks with specially commissioned pictorial covers, and no dustjackets.  The books were cheaper than the originals, and the paper quality was not particularly good:  surviving books tend to have browned pages.  However, the Pony Library was an excellent way for the pony mad child to buy a better quality book than the paperbacks.  I had three titles myself as a child, and they had pride of place amongst my library.  If I could have found more (rural Northamptonshire was a bit restricted on what it allowed the pony book buyer) I would have bought them.  When I look back at them now, they have lost their visual appeal:  but I thought them the last word in sophistication when I was young. Collins had obviously carefully worked out what would appeal to the pony-mad girl and they gave it to her:  bright, sometimes crudely coloured covers with a slightly other-world quality.

The Collins Pony Library included some titles it published as first editions: Patricia Leitch’s Rebel Pony and Pony Surprise. Her Afraid to Ride, First Pony, and Jacky Jumps to the Top were all originally published under the name Jane Eliot in the Collins Spitfire Series. Stable to Let, by Lilias Edwards is the only other book to be specially commissioned, as far as I can see.    For a full list of the Collins Pony Library please click here.

As to whether any of the books are abridged, it’s probable, apart from the first editions of course.  The Monica Edwards titles have had some alterations.  From John Allsup’s site on Monica Edwards, I gather that Wish for a Pony has lost its frontispiece, but is otherwise the same.  Cargo of Horses has lost 4 illustrations.  No Entry is abridged, and has only 5 of the original illustrations. Black Hunting Whip is abridged.  The new front cover is by Geoffrey Whittam.

How often, if at all, the Pony Library titles were reprinted is difficult to tell.  The British Library doesn’t list any reprints, but then it doesn’t have all the titles anyway, so this is not conclusive!  At any rate, Collins did not continue the Pony Library into the 1980s.   My enquiries with Collins are, so far, unfruitful, so I assume sales simply didn’t warrant their re-printing!

J A Allen took up the baton in the late 1980s and 1990s with its Allen Equestrian Fiction series. At that time the main flourish of pony book publishing was over.  What was published was not particularly good, and printed on paper which was going to struggle to outlast the century.  J A Allen’s Chief Executive, Caroline Akrill (better known for her own excellent children’s books) started a project to produce pony books that would succeed in their own right, not just as a genre which could be guaranteed to sell however good or bad it was, simply because it featured a pony.  “Allen had always been about quality and we wanted to elevate the status of the pony novel, engaging the top writers, the best illustrators and with our usual high production standards.”

This series was, I think, a brave attempt by Allen to provide well-written pony stories aimed at the teenage market.  I find all the titles interesting:  they are written assuming that the reader does have some intelligence, and generally with some understanding of the teenage rider:  Gillian Baxter’s wonderful Bargain Horses is particularly good.  It’s a pity that lack of sales led to Allen not carrying on with their experiment.  They were not supported by the libraries, who thought pony books were old hat and elitist, and the higher price of the books (£4.99 - £5.99 compared with £2.99 - £3.99), and J A Allen’s status as a niche publisher, meant the chains were reluctant to stock them.  I wonder if the very different format of the books had something to do with the lack of sales: being trade paperbacks with illustrations completely unlike the more normal, for that time, photographic front cover meant perhaps the pony book buyer simply did not realise what the books were. However, ignore the covers, and try the books.  There’s a list here.

Although J A Allen’s experiment did not succeed, the process was exhilarating, and has left a legacy of fine pony books.  Caroline Akrill said: We had a lot of fun doing the series, persuading established writers (like to P-T sisters) to write new books for us and reading a tremendous amount of unsolicited pony fiction to find new talent. I don’t regret it in the least and although perhaps the least successful of our projects, it remains the one we enjoyed the most and are still proud of!”

Sources: Caroline Akrill, Catalogue of the British Library