Primrose Cumming (1915-2004) was one of the best pony book writers. Her writing career spanned over 30 years, and produced some of the best examples of the genre, combining fine observation of human and equine with a certain wry humour.
Her education came from a governess, who recognised her flair for writing. Her first story, about the travelling adventures of an ant, was published in Nursery World. She said: “I found it tremendously exciting writing
The first book Primrose had published was Doney (Country Life 1934), which reflected her love of ponies. She was, she said, “so keen on riding at this time, that I used to steal out early in the morning and ride the farmers’ horses in the fields. Then I wrote a book about my friend’s pony, Doney, and sold it. With the money, I bought Black Jack - who was rather too spirited for a beginner. When I took him hunting, he broke his bridle and off I came - in front of the whole field. At last we got on better terms and we both made our names by jumping everything in his path. To feed Black Jack, I wrote more books about country life, drawing
The published dates of Primrose Cummings’ books make it likely that these were Spider Dog (1935), and perhaps Silver Snaffles, which presumably was accepted for publication by the time she was 21: it was published in 1936, when she was 22.
The pre-war years saw Primrose Cummings’ most prolific period. She wrote The Silver Eagle Riding School in 1938. This was the first book of the only series she wrote, and was followed by Rachel of Romney, a story about a lamb, published in 1939. Also in 1939 came The Wednesday Pony and Ben: The Story of A Cart-Horse. The Chestnut Filly was published in 1940, and was followed by the second of the Silver Eagle series, Silver Eagle Carries On. This accurately reflected what happened to horses in World War Two: although the horse was no longer used directly in war, animals were still compulsorily purchased as cavalry troopers. Josephine Pullein-Thompson told me she had known people who had shot their hunters rather than have them taken: Mary, Josephine and Virginia of the Silver Eagle Riding School do not do this: Virginia spirits the Army vet off in a trap pulled by Smug, who can be relied on to behave badly: the vet “went pale grey and
The very best pony book writers have ponies whose characters are as vivid as their humans’, rather than exisiting simply as vehicles to allow their riders to compete in the next gymkhana. Primrose Cumming was an extremely astute observer of ponies: Tattles in Silver Snaffles is brilliantly observed: by turns tetchy and patient, he is the archetypal family pony who has long-sufferingly taught generations of children to ride;
Primrose Cumming was equally good at human characters: The Silver Eagle Riding School series has Josephine, the brilliant, but genuinely irritating middle sister, alternately a torment and an inspiration to her elder sister Mary. The Wednesday Pony is a wry look at a thoroughly genuine, honest sort of pony whose owners waste time wishing he were a show hack, a racehorse or simply a Dream Pony before realising that they would have to go a very long way before finding a better pony than the one they have.
The sheer variety of stories that Primrose Cumming wrote is impressive: from the most imaginative of the talking-horse genre (Silver Snaffles) to a picture of the lives of a heavy horse family down the ages, she rarely trod the same ground twice. Her books are mostly reasonably easy to find: Silver Snaffles, Rivals to Silver Eagle and The Deep Sea Horse are the most difficult by quite some way, but Fidra
Primrose Cuming was the youngest of a family of two girls and a boy, and was born on the Isle of Thanet, Kent, during the First World War. She was always a country girl but rather than ponies one of her earliest loves was fishing. She fished on the River Rother (the family had moved to Sandhurst, on the borders of Kent and Sussex, which area provided the settings for many of her stories), and once when she was about 10, her catch nearly pulled her in. She was, she said “the heroine of the day when we landed that huge eel.” One of her first attempts at earning her living came when she was 12 and decided to be a poultry farmer. Alas she couldn’t bring herself to sell the birds when they
Jingo in The Wednesday Pony is utterly genuine, and Smug, the evil pony in Silver Eagle Carries On must be an inspiration to budding Kippers everywhere: “Smug, of course, had no intention of jumping anything, but she held upon the right course until the last second, when
Illustrations: taken from Silver Snaffles
