(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
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
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
