Babette Cole
Babette Cole writes and illustrates children’s books: mostly of the early reader type, but Babette Cole’s world is not one of mimsy whimsy. She gives it to the infant reader straight. Dr Dog, mainstay of my children’s childhood, does not flinch from nits or worms. Her Fetlocks Hall series is aimed at the confident reader, and is set at a manic boarding school. Its heroine, Penny Simms, becomes the Unicorn Princess, and centre of the fight against the wicked Shetland sized devlipeds. Having loved her books for younger children, I was expecting to love the Fetlocks Hall books: the devlipeds I loved; the rest I wasn’t quite as convinced by. Nevertheless the series is an interesting excursion into a field usually populated by creatures of an utterly sickly goodness, and the pictures are of course wonderful.
Babette Cole has a solid equestrian background. She owns and runs the Holnest Stud,
and founded the Patey Hats Legover Ladies’ Chasing Team -
Finding the books: all in print (or nearly so).
Fetlocks Hall
The Unicorn Princess
The Ghostly Blinkers
The Enchanted Pony
The Curse of the Pony Vampires
The Ghostly Blinkers
Bloomsbury, London, 2010, illustrated by the author, 122 pp.
Read a review of the book here.
Fetlocks Hall is in dire financial trouble. If Potty Smythe can’t sort it out, the school might have to close.
The Unicorn Princess
Bloomsbury, London, 2010, illustrated by the author, 148 pp.
Read a review of the book here.
Penny Simms is pony mad, and she wins a scholarship place at Fetlocks Hall. Fetlocks
Hall is no ordinary school -
Bibliography -
The Curse of the Pony Vampires
Bloomsbury, London, 2011, illustrated by the author
The devlipeds have sent a flock of evil smelling pony vampires to infest Fetlocks Hall: this is all the more worrying as Fetlocks Hall is about to face its annual inspection.
The Enchanted Pony
Bloomsbury, London, 2011, illustrated by the author
Pip’s parents have disappeared and she and Penny are (fortunately) determined to solve the mystery.