Mary Elwyn Patchett (1897-
After working as a journalist in Australia, from 1931, she lived and worked in England. Although she only returned to Australia for holidays, it is there that her books are set. Her first book, Ajax the Warrior, which was originally broadcast on BBC Children’s Hour, drew heavily on her childhood.
She continued to work for Children’s Hour over the years, and continued to write for children on many subjects. Inspired by the idea of space flight, she wrote Lost on Venus and Kidnapped in Space. She acted, and also owned a beauty salon for a time. Her books were translated into many different languages, and she was considered to be the most widely read Australian children’s author of her time.
Mary Elwyn Patchett wrote one major pony series: The Brumby. Her Ajax series does involve horses, but apart from Tam the Untamed, they are peripheral. Her Summer on Wild Horse Island is a standalone book. Whatever you might think of its story, the book is notable for having some of the nastiest cover illustrations in the pony book world. Not one edition is a winner.
Her books, though, are excellent reads. She does not flinch from the harsh realities of the Australian bush, and neither does she drift off into the romanticised oddities which afflicted the last of Elyne Mitchell’s Silver Brumby series. The Brumby series does have one peculiarity: Rebel Brumby’s dustjacket says it is the eighth Brumby book, but Austlit in her entry mentions only seven, as listed below. It may be the series’ hero, Joey Meehan, pops up in another, otherwise unrelated, book, so if you know which it is, do please let me know.
If you want to read her, the first two books of the Brumby series, which were printed in paperback by Puffin, are very easy to find indeed. Alas the same is not true for the rest of the series, though you might be able to find some of them in their American printings, which are more widely available. Most of the Ajax series can be difficult.
The bibliography is only intended to include her horse books. It’s perfectly possible that I’ve missed some, so please let me know if you’ve spotted things I’ve left out or got wrong.
Sources:
Austlit
Children’s Series Fiction. NCC. 2004
The Brumby Series
Many thanks to Hannah Fleetwood, Susan Bourgeau and Lisa Catz for help with the photographs.
Mary Elwyn Patchett
The Brumby Series
The Brumby
Come Home, Brumby
Circus Brumby
Stranger in the Herd
Brumby
Foal
The Long Ride
Rebel Brumby
The Ajax Series
Ajax the Warrior
Tam the Untamed
Treasure of the Reef
Return to the Reef
Outback Adventure
The
Call of the Bush
The End of the Outlaws
The Golden Wolf
Ajax and the Drovers
Ajax and
the Haunted Mountain
Ajax the Warrior
Lutterworth, London, 1953, illus Eric Tansley, 183 pp.
As Ajax, Golden
Dog of the Australian Bush, Bobbs-
This is the story of a girl and her animals: Ajax the dog, her ponies Buck and Belle,
and all
sorts of other pets. She lives a free, solitary life on her father’s cattle
station, and has many
adventures.
Tam the Untamed
Lutterworth, London, 1954. Illus Joan Kiddell-
Bobbs-
Treasure of the Reef
Lutterworth, London, 1955, illus Joan Kiddell-
Return to the Reef
Lutterworth, London, 1956, illus Joan Kiddell-
Cry of the Heart
Lutterworth, London, 1956
Second of the Ajax series. Tam is a beautiful, wilful silver horse whom only his mistress can handle. He is the son of the famous buckjumper Bobs, and has inherited his hatred of strangers and his savage fury. Eventually, Tam’s real needs are recognised.
Bibliography -
The Call of the Bush
Lutterworth, London, 1959, illus Wildsmith
The End of the Outlaws
Lutterworth, London, 1961, illus Roger Payne
Come Home, Brumby
Lutterworth, London, 1961, illus Stuart Tresililan
Bobbs-
The Brumby
Lutterworth, London, 1958, illus Juliet McLeod
Bobbs-
Lutterworth new editions 1969
Lutterworth new
edition 1974, cover Michael Charlton (far right)
Puffin, pb, 1964
Outback Adventure
Lutterworth, London, 1957, illus Joan Kiddell-
Joey dreamed of building up a ghost herd after a silver horse runs with the brumby herd on his father’s land. The herd is scattered by stockman, and Joey’s favourite, The Brumby, is a killer, but he still believes one day the horse will return to the lands where he was born.
Just as Joey’s fencing is nearly complete, the Brumby leads the herd off into the mountains. Joey is determined to go after them and bring them home.
Ajax and the Haunted Mountain
Lutterworth, London, 1963, illus Roger Payne
Circus Brumby
Lutterworth, London, 1962, illus Stuart Tresililan
The Golden Wolf
Lutterworth, London, 1962, illus Roger Payne
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Quarter Horse Boy
Harrap, London, 1970, illus Roger Payne
“Tod was a stable boy and horses were his whole life. Even as a baby he had spent
all his time in the stables at
Booramby, the Austalian cattle ranch where he was born.
When Nakimer, the owner of the ranch, bought the
famous Quarter Horses to start
a new breeding line, Tod lost his heart to Perina. He thought of the foal as his
own -
the outback...”
Rebel Brumby
Lutterworth, Guildford, 1972, illus Roger Payne
The Long Ride
Lutterworth, London, 1970, illus Michael Charlton
Summer on Wild Horse Island
Brockhampton Press, Leicester, 1965, illus Roger Payne
Meredith
Press, USA, 1967
Knight, London, pb, 1975
Brumby Foal
Lutterworth, London, 1965, illus Victor Ambrus
Joey’s Lippizaner colt, Star, is stolen by a Brumby mare.
Danny and David discover an island off the Great Barrier Reef, on which there are abandoned horses.
In 1862, an explorer and his mare trekked 4,000 miles through Australia. Joey Meehan, on his grey mare Polly, sets off along the same trail.
Joey finds drawings done by Walli, an outcast aborigine boy, showing a herd of wild horses. Joey has to decide who has a better claim to the horses, but meanwhile there are other men who have seen and coveted the wild horses.
Stranger in the Herd
Lutterworth, London, 1964, illus Stuart Tresilian
Duell, Sloan
& Pearce, New York, 1967
Joey’s beautiful mare, Amanda, is stolen, and her daughter is adopted by a brumby herd.
Ajax and the Drovers
Lutterworth, London, 1964, illus Roger Payne