I often wonder how many of the ponies who appear in pony books were based on real ponies.  Not all, by any means, but Gillian Baxter's books are full of ponies she has known or owned.  When I talked to her, I was struck by just how many of her equine characters were based on her own horses and ponies.

But it wasn't always so.  “I always wrote,” she said, “but I started by writing stories about guinea pigs and mice.  I had a lot of small animals - at one point I actually had over 100 mice! I was always writing when I was a child, and even more so when I got my first typewriter.”  Her mother also wrote, and had some children's stories published in ladies' papers, so like the Pullein-Thompsons, Gillian had maternal encouragement. Her parents were thrilled when she had her first book, Horses and Heather, published when she was 15.

None of her family were horsey, but her grandmother used to tell Gillian stories of  horses.  “One used to pull my great-grandfather's cobbler's cart around big houses in the Midlands, where he would fit shoes for everyone; from the maid to the owners of the house.  The horse was called Bob, and he was terrified of steam-engines and newspapers.  I think that was the start of my fascination with horses.”

Gillian started riding in London, where the family then lived.  She went to a Convent School  and then Camden School for Girls in London  - not to a boarding school, though the school Roberta and Ellen go to in Jump for the Stars exists.  It was based on one a friend of Gillian's went to, out of which she sneaked on regular occasions.  I asked Gillian if she had ever done this but she laughed and said she was rather more law-abiding!

Gillian started riding when she was 12 at the De Vere Stables (which appear in Tan and Tarmac – long gone now, they were used by the Civil Service Riding Club until they were re-developed), and so most of her early riding took place in about as urban an environment as you can think of.  Once she started riding she rode many of the De Vere Stables' own ponies, but also kept her first pony, Tommy there.  Tommy, a 14.2 bay cob she kept at part-livery was “lazy but nice-looking.”  I asked if he'd ever found a spark.  “No!  He never changed!”

Riding in London is of course radically different to riding in the country.   I never had good brakes as a child, and when I used to see horses in Hyde Park I didn't see myself trotting in perfect control along Rotten Row: I had horrible visions of careering out of control in the Park, scattering poodles and polite children.  Gillian is obviously an infinitely better rider than me, as this was not a problem for her, though Amber, one of her favourite ponies, did apparently “career around the park, but she wasn't as bad as one pony  I knew who got loose, jumped the railings into Park Lane and was eventually banned from the Park by the police.”  This was a fate which the characters in Tan and Tarmac thankfully didn't meet.  The ponies in Tan and Tarmac were nearly all real, as were some of the characters: in fact Gillian has just been to the 70th birthday part of the real life Tessa!   The stables in the book were a mixture of two:  the De Vere stables, who didn't take part in any filming, and  Robert Barley's stables in Hyde Park.  Robert was known for driving a stagecoach through London to advertise films.

Tan and Tarmac is quite possibly the only pony book centred around riding in London, without a later escape to the more horse-friendly countryside.  Several of Gillian's books are unique:  I cannot think of another book which combines ponies and racing cars (Ribbons and Rings) and she was the first to write a pony book about dressage (The Stables at Hampton).  Gillian's earlier pony books are also unusual because she focussed on teenagers and girls in their early twenties.  I asked why she wrote about teenagers when so many authors wrote about younger children.  “I wrote about the age I knew and stayed with them as they grew up.  I think it's important to go with your characters.”  She was lucky with her publishers:  not all were happy for their authors' characters to age.  After the Noel and Henry series, Collins forbade Josphine Pullein-Thompson from writing another series where the characters aged.  Gillian's publishers Evans were already publishing Lorna Hill's Sadler's Wells ballet series, in which the heroine Veronica not only ages, she has a child, so presumably didn't have Collins' objections.  

By the time Gillian and her family moved to Surrey -  Gatton Park near Reigate - she had well and truly left school.  “I didn't,” she said, “go to school as much as I should have and I left as soon as possible.”  She had two horses in Surrey:  “Goldie, who was chestnut:  he was traffic-shy, and Minty, who was a grey Welsh Cob.  I did shows with them, and hunted and hacked.  I wasn't writing full time- I worked for Country Life as a typist and drove my  father (an economist) around the country.”  The Bracken Stables series, written at this time, sees Roberta from school girl to professional rider who is about to marry Guy.  And there the series ends.... leaving many of us champing at the bit wondering what happened next.  There was a next.  This story isn't actually written, but you never know; it might be....  Roberta and Guy marry, and have twin children, a girl

(keen on horses) and a boy (not).   Shelta is in foal, but to a half-wild Gipsy cob.  She eventually has the foal after a difficult birth; and the boy bonds with it.  

Gillian's dressage novel, The Stables at Hampton was inspired by her experiences when she was a working pupil with Robert Hall at the Fulmer School of Equitation, at the age of about 17.  Robert Hall studied at the Spanish Riding School, and brought Lipizzanners over to the UK.  I asked what it was like working for him.  “It was hard work!  He had two distinct yards: one was a riding school.  One of my first jobs was to wash all the tails of the riding school horses: they hadn't been touched for weeks, only a quick brush.  His other yard had his Lipizzaners and dressage horses and it was absolutely perfect.  I had to groom the dressage horses, and when I did I had to knock out the curry comb on the floor outside so he could check how much grease I was getting out!”

The Stables at Hampton's heroine, Tamara, came to Gillian before the story.  “Tamara wasn't the right character for a jumping novel, but she did fit one based on dressage.  The palomino horse in the story existed: he was stabled at De Vere, and danced and acted just as in the book.”

Gillian's books for an older audience came to an end when Evans, in common with other publishers, had decided there was no more mileage in pony books, and no longer wanted to publish them.  She had already written a book for younger readers for the educational publishers, Arnolds, to encourage reluctant readers:  this was Sweet Rock, which is also a pony story. “After Evans, my agent suggested  I write for a younger age group, and so I wrote the Magic and Moonshine series.  The first of them, Pantomine Ponies, was my most successful book.  After this series came to an end, I carried on writing for D C Thomson.”  Another pony author, Primrose Cumming also wrote for D C Thomson at this time. I asked Gillian if she'd ever met her:  she hadn't herself, she said, but knew of her.  Apparently Primrose would meet the publishers in a station wagon with grass growing out of it!  

Besides writing stories for D C Thomson on a whole range of subjects,including dancing and a haunted computer (though not in the same story)  Gillian wrote stories for D C Thomson about a girl called Wendy.  “Her parents owned a dressage and jumping stables.  Wendy had a boyfriend, and also some quite unlikely adventures – wild horses to tame, ghost horses, there was one story based on mobile phones, and one set in the USA where she was cornered by a cougar.”  The stories were developed into books and published in Swedish, but as generic books, not under Gillian's name.  Eventually the stories came to a stop as there were problems with the translations.   

Gillian wrote another book which did not appear under her own name: Sue-Elaine Draws a Horse, which she ghost-wrote with Marion Coakes: the book appeared under the names Marion Coakes and Gillian Hirst (Gillian's married name).  “Doing the research for the book with Marion was great fun: she was a lovely person.  I went to visit her to find out how she thought of things, and the sort of words she used.”  I asked if they had written the book together.  “No, I did that!” And who had the idea for the book?  “I did!”  

Bargain Horses came about when J A Allen asked her to write a book for their Junior Equestrian Fiction series.  “Some aspects of the mother and daughter in the story are based on me and my daughters, but I don't think I was anywhere near as pushy as the mother (Mary), though I have seen a lot of very pushy mothers as both my daughters ride:  one events, and one does dressage and jumps.  The horse Weston was based on a big strong horse my daughter and I had to give up on.”  

Evans are re-publishing two of Gillian's novels (Tan and Tarmac and Ribbons and Rings) this year (2008), I asked why she thought Evans had chosen to re-publish.  “I think it’s because of the resurgence of interest in pony books; because the older generation want to re-visit the books of their youth, and there isn’t a modern equivalent to the traditional pony story.”  Evans discussed which books they would reprint with Gillian.  Other titles thought about were Jump for the Stars and The Stables at Hampton, but in the end they chose Tan and Tarmac and Ribbons and Rings. “I think we went for Tan and Tarmac because it's unique in being set in a London stables.”  We discussed what other London -based books we could think of – not many: London Pride being about it but neither of us could think of anything else based in London.  Ribbons and Rings is one of Gillian's favourites among her stories (the others are Ponies by the Sea and Bargain Horses) so it was an obvious choice for the other reprint.  

Gillian still rides and has horses about the place herself.  When I spoke to her last, she had just come in from trying to get one of her daughter's horses to load into their new horsebox, which ended, as she said, with her swinging from his head!  She now lives in Pembrokeshire, and has horses: four of her own and one who is retired – he is a pony left over from when she did trekking.  13.2 Nimble once distinguished himself by taking off with a trekker and jumping two cattle grids, by which time his rider had wisely baled out.  Horses are still very much part of Gillian's life, and she still loves writing.  Watch this space...

The cover of Gillian’s ghost-written Sue-Elaine Draws a Horse