Christine Pullein-Thompson

Christine Pullein-Thompson (1925-2005) was quite probably the most prolific British pony book author.  She has over 100 books to her name, dwarfing the output of her sisters, Diana and Josephine.  Her first solo book was We Rode to the Sea, and she followed this by what is probably a unique trilogy, the Chill Valley Hounds series, in which the heroes and heroines set up their own hunt.  The likelihood of a story like this being published now is incredibly remote:  but these stories were amongst Christine’s best, showing an interaction with the adult world that the pony story does not always embrace.  Probably her other most noteworthy book is The Horse Sale.  Christine was always interested in portraying riders from very different backgrounds, and this is probably one of her most successful.  Like her sister, Josephine’s, Six Ponies, this book takes a situation and looks at how a very different set of characters react to it.  The Horse Sale shows various teenagers and children coping with loved ponies being sold, and in some cases looking at, and changing their own behaviour.  It is a satisfying read: without being too overtly fairytale, we see the struggle some of the characters have with themselves and their situations to achieve their dreams.  

Christine’s later books showed a desire to move away from the portrayal of middle class children and their ponies (albeit sometimes the impoverished middle classes.)  In books like Riders on the March and its sequel They Rode to Victory, she showed working class children fighting to save their riding school from development.  These books are not as successful as other books depicting working class children and ponies:  K M Peyton’s brilliant Fly-by-Night and Who Sir? Me Sir?, and Christine Dickenson’s Dark Horse both produce utterly believable characters:  with Christine Pullein-Thompson’s, you are always just a little aware that it is an effort for the author to move outside her comfort zone:  it’s a valiant effort, but it is an effort nevertheless.

She was on firmer ground writing about difficult emotional situations.  In I Rode a Winner,  her heroine, Debbie, comes from a broken home, and pours all her love onto the mare, Cleo.  This is not one of the easiest of her books to read: its ending is not fairytale, but it is a convincing picture of a girl trying desperately hard to pick up the pieces of her life.

She moved back, with the Phantom Horse and Black Pony Inn series, to children with whose backgrounds she was more in tune.  During the later part of her writing career, she wrote pony books for younger children, and series which concentrated on animal rescue.

In the publishing climate of today; by no means as accepting of the pony book as it once was, it is unlikely that any British author will ever match her output.  Even worldwide, she has no equal.  Yes, the American series by Bonnie Bryant, the Saddle Club, is enormously long, but it is a single series, but Christine Pullein-Thompson produced pony stories covering pretty well every aspect of the genre; from tales of a wild horse, to holiday adventure, to rescue stories and hunting.   

Links:

Cavalier Books’ fact sheet (the company is run by Christine’s daughter)

Goodbye to Hounds
Collins 1952, illus Charlotte Hough
Collins 1956 reprint, Armada pb 1965 (Mary Gernat cover)
White Lion, 1977, hb
J A Allen revised pb 1990s

Character list

It looks as if disaster has hit the Chill Valley Hounds: the
lease on the Day’s farm is up; the farm is for sale, and they
can’t afford to buy it.  They need to raise £500 to save the
hounds, and they have six months to do it.

It Began with Picotee (with Josephine and Diana Pullein-Thompson)
A & C Black, 1946, illustrated by Rosemary Robertson

Character list

This is the first story the Pullein-Thompsons wrote.  Olivia, Bridget and Griselda Douglas own Picotee, and
they are then lent Tony.  Then they buy a chestnut foal they call Pengo, and then they agree to school
Colonel Selcombe’s half Shetland, and then they borrow Mrs Baxter’s two ponies.... And they end up with
plenty of ponies.

We Rode to the Sea
Collins 1948, illustrated by Mil Brown (yellow covers with
vignette of horse’s head)
Collins Crown Library, 1948 (red covers)
Armada pb 1965, Collins Pony Library 1973,

Character list

The MacGregors go on a riding tour of the Highlands, but
then they come across some Germans with evil plans,
and the riding tour takes a very different direction.

We Hunted Hounds
Collins, London 1949, illus Marcia Lane
Foster, 190 pp.
Collins Pony Library 1970s,
Armada pb 1964 (cover Mary Gernat)
and 1970s
J A Allen 1990s pb

Character list

Sandy and Lawrence and the Day family
decide to start a pack of hounds.

I Carried the Horn
Collins 1951, illustrated by Charlotte Hough
Collins 1958 reprint, White Lion Hb reprint,
Armada pb 1964 (Mary Gernat cover) and 1970s
J A Allen pb (revised)

Character list

The Chill Valley hounds are building up their reputation, though with ups
and downs along the way.  Then Sandy gets the chance to act as
huntsman, and carry the horn.

Phantom Horse
Collins 1955, illus Sheila Rose
Collins reprint 1957, Collins Seagull 1962,
Armada pb 1969, 1978, Award hb 1997

Character list here

Jean and her brother Angus have to go to Virginia with
their parents, which means leaving their beloved ponies.
While they are out there, they meet the Miller family
and ride with them.  It is on a ride with them that they
see the wild palomino, and are determined to catch him.
At last they do, but it is very nearly too late.

Riders from Afar
Collins, 1954, illustrated by Charlotte Hough
Collins reprint 1957, Collins Pony Lib 1970s
White Lion hb 1976, Armada pb 1962

Character list

The children who live at the Castle are moving out and
renting it for the summer to some wealthy Americans.
They find the Americans are much more fun than they
thought they were going to be.

A Day to Go Hunting
Collins 1956, illustrated by Sheila Rose
Armada pb 1969, 1970s

Character list

This is the story of a day out with the South Flintshire Foxhounds, and
what happens to all the people and horses and ponies who set off for
the meet:  some of them keen, some of them nervous, and some to
return with their lives changed.

The First Rosette
Burke 1956, illustrated by Sheila Rose
Dragon pb 1967, cover Mary Gernat. 124 pp.

Character list

David Smith is not like the rest of his family: he only wants to ride.  He meets Pat, the
Master’s daughter, but he still has no pony until he rescues an injured hound and his
reward is a pony, which the Hunt will keep for him as long as he helps out as kennel
boy occasionally.  Folly, the pony, and David get on well, and it seems that she has a
great future as a show jumper.

The Impossible Horse
(as Christine Keir) Evans 1957, illus Maurice Tulloch
Reprinted in pb by Dragon in 1972 as by
Christine Pullein-Thompson
Character list

Jan Craigson sees the beautiful bay Benedictine out hunting, when he rears and badly
injures Sonia Stanmore. Jan has just started taking horses to school now that she has
left school, and she is convinced that she can re-school Benedictine and return him to
the horse he was before the Stanmores bought him.

Stolen Ponies
Collins, London, 1957 hb, illus
Sheila Rose, 192 pp.
Collins Pony Library 1970s
Armada pb 1965, 1974, 157 pp.

The wild ponies are being killed,
probably for horsemeat, and two
holidaying families decide to do
something about it.
 

The Second Mount
Burke hb 1957, illus Sheila Rose
Dragon pb 1967 1970s

Cavalier pb

Character list

David and Pat have gone into partnership running the Elm Tree Rding School.
Then they buy the bay mare Tornada at a Sale, and she appears completely
unrideable. Even after they make a success of her, David’s troubles are not
over as Pat decides to leave to be a debutante.  

Three to Ride
Burke 1958, illus Sheila Rose
Burke reprint Falcon Library hb 1960
Dragon pb 1960s and 1973
in Three in One Pony Stories, Red Fox pb 1999

Character list

David is to be come a working pupil at Major Seely’s
stables. The stud groom who runs the stables, Mr Booth,
resents David and makes his life so difficult when Major
Seely is abroad that David leaves.

The Lost Pony
Burke 1959 hb, illus Sheila Rose
Burke Junior Pacemaker 1964 pb
Dragon pb 1975
in Burke hb Triple Adventure 1965

Cavalier pb
Character list
Janice and Mick long for a pony of their own, and
when they are sent away to foster parents in the
country they find one in the cabbage patch.

For Want of a Saddle
Burke 1960, illus Anne Bullen
Burke 1964 Junior Pacemaker pb,
Dragon pb 1972

Cavalier pb
Character list

NB: the Pacemaker edition has the wrong blurb on
the cover: it actually refers to A Pony and His Partner,
which they also published.

Mick and Janice have moved to the country with their
parents, and at last have a pony of their own.
Unfortunately, they can’t afford a saddle.