Mary Elwyn Patchett (1897-1989) grew up on a cattle station in Texas, Queensland.  She was a solitary child, spending her time with pets and the animals from the bush, and it is this world on which she drew for her books - the dustjacket of Tam the Untamed said “humans, especially young ones, were looked upon by her in the way most people regard tigers.”

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

Ajax, Golden Dog of the Australian Bush, Bobbs-Merrill,Indianapolis, 1954

Tam the Untamed
Lutterworth, London, 1954.  Illus Joan Kiddell-Monroe
Bobbs-Merrill, Indianapolis, 1955, illus Gerald McCann

Treasure of the Reef
Lutterworth, London, 1955, illus Joan Kiddell-Monroe

Return to the Reef
Lutterworth, London, 1956, illus Joan Kiddell-Monroe

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 - pony books only

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-Merrill, Indianapolis, 1962

The Brumby
Lutterworth, London, 1958, illus Juliet McLeod
Bobbs-Merrill, Indianapolis, 1958 (Brumby, the Wild White Stallion)
Lutterworth new editions 1969
Lutterworth new edition 1974, cover Michael Charlton (far right)
Puffin, pb, 1964

Outback Adventure
Lutterworth, London, 1957, illus Joan Kiddell-Monroe

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