Josephine Pullein-Thompson

Jane Badger Books

Josephine Pullein-Thompson is one of the best, and most popular of pony book authors. She continued to publish books into the 1990s, having started with It Began With Picotee, which she wrote with her sisters, Christine and Diana. Writing must have seemed normal to the Pullein-Thompsons: their mother, Joanna Cannan, was a noted writer who wrote some of the very earliest pony books, as well as some notable detective and adult fiction. The Pullein-Thompsons started writing at an early age, and went on to run their own riding school. They were heavily influenced by Henry Wynmalen’s Equitation, and taught, and wrote about, a kinder and more horse-centred form of riding, moving away from the twin evils of the “good hunting seat” and the backward seat whilst jumping.

Josephine Pullein-Thompson’s books though are far more than just a treatise on how to ride and treat your pony: the educational aspect is worn so lightly the information is absorbed rather than waved in your face. I sold a copy of Six Ponies to someone who said she used it as an educational aid!

There is a full bibliography of Josephine Pullein-Thompson’s works here. Many, many thanks to Dawn Harrison, and to Jenny, Hannah, Susanna, Konstanze and Ehsan for their help with the bibliography.

I was lucky enough to meet and interview Josephine Pullein-Thompson, and you can read the resulting article here. Fidra Books are republishing the Noel and Henry series (in stock here). I wrote the introduction for the first, Six Ponies, and you can read it here.

Series

Josephine Pullein-Thompson wrote three series. Her first, and the best by quite a long way, is the Noel and Henry series about the West Barsetshire Pony Club. It was written over a period of eleven years, and was one of the few English pony book series to introduce an element of romance. The books are relatively easy to find in paperback: they were reprinted several times by Armada. They are harder to find in hardback, but definitely not impossible. Full publication details are given in the bibliography, but the books are:

Six Ponies
Pony Club Team
The Radney Riding Club

One Day Event
Pony Club Camp

JPT’s longest series was the Moors series, set in Cornwall, and featuring sisters Frances and Louisa Burnett (at least in the first 5 books: in Mystery on the Moor it is explained they had to leave as their father was ill, and they don’t get a mention in Suspicion Stalks the Moor.) The series was originally published in hardback. As far as I know, the following titles made it into paperback: Fear Treks the Moor, Ghost Horse on the Moor, Ride to the Rescue and Star Riders of the Moor. This last title also made an appearance, re-titled, as Star Riders in J A Allen’s Equestrian Fiction series.

The Moors
Star-Riders of the Moor
Fear Treks the Moor
Ride to the Rescue
Ghost Horse on the Moor
Treasure on the Moor
Mystery on the Moor
Suspicion Stalks the Moor

The Woodbury Pony Club series was written much later than the Barsetshire series, and is about a completely different Pony Club. These books never appeared in hardback as separate titles: they were published as first editions by Armada, and reprinted several times, including as a compilation hardback.

The Woodbury Pony Club
Pony Club Cup
Pony Club Challenge
Pony Club Trek

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.

Josephine Pullein-Thompson: Bibliography

Six Ponies
Collins, 1946, illus Anne Bullen
Armada, pb, 1971 and 1979

Swift, lam bds, 1987

Fidra,pb, 2007

Character list

The West Barsetshire Pony
Club are given six New Forest
Ponies to break in. The six
members who have the ponies
are a very varied lot: from Noel who agonises over everything, to Richard who couldn’t care less, and Evelyn and June who are convinced they know it all. Not everything goes to plan by a long way.

I Had Two Ponies
(Illustrated by Anne Bullen, Collins 1947)
Reprinted by Armada as a paperback in 1963

and in hardback in Collins Pony Library in 1974

Spoilt Christabel couldn’t care less when her two ponies are sold. Then she
goes to stay with the Westlake family, and begins to see the error of her
ways, and then, stricken by guilt, she tries to find the two ponies.

Plenty Of Ponies
(Illustrated by Anne Bullen, Collins 1949)

Reprinted by Armada as a paperback in 1970,

and in hardback by Collins Seagull in 1964

White Lion in 1977

Character list

The Esmond family are hopeless, despite having lovely
ponies and a groom, so they decide to start a self-
improvement campaign, but they seem to get worse,
not better.

Pony Club Team
(Illustrated by Sheila Rose, Collins 1950)

Reprinted by Collins in 1956;

in hb in the Collins Pony Library

by Armada in paperback in 1973 and 1977

and by Swift in 1987 as a laminated hardback.

Character list

The Major decides to hold a course for the Pony Club
during the holidays, with a dressage competition at the
end. We meet Henry, see more of John, and Christopher
explodes onto the scene with the uncontrollable Fireworks. The Radcliffes haven’t changed, and although the Pony Club get there in the end, it is a struggle.

The Radney Riding Club
(Illustrated by Sheila Rose, Collins 1951)

Reprinted by Knight in paperback in 1970,

and by Armada in pb, and by

Swift in 1987 as a laminated hardback

Character list

Set on Henry’s home turf, he and Noel decide to start a Riding Club. The
set of characters is mostly new, but the problems that beset them are the
same.

Prince Among Ponies
(Illustrated by Charlotte Hough, Collins 1952)

Reprinted as Collins Seagull edition in 1962,

and as a paperback by Armada in 1978 (and previously)

Character List

Patrick and Sara, who have learned to ride quite correctly,
go to stay with the Merrimans. Jane has a pony, the
glorious Adonis, who has been declared unsafe, but
Patrick and Sara think their methods might work, so they
start riding him in secret.

One Day Event
(Illustrated by Sheila Rose, Collins 1954)

Reprinted by Colllins in 1958,

in hb in the Collins Pony Library in 1973,

in paperback by Armada in 1979,

and by Swift in 1987 as a laminated hardback

Character list

Noel has two Anglo-Arabs to school: Truant and
Tranquil, but she is in the usual Noel-like floods of
despair, as nothing seems to be going right. Henry
isn’t having much luck with Echo either, so the Major
yet again comes to the rescue of the Pony Club, and starts schooling them.

Show Jumping Secret
(Illustrated by Sheila Rose, Collins 1955)
Reprinted as Collins Seagull,

and in the Collins Pony Library;

as a paperback by Armada in 1969 and 1981.

Character list

Charles has suffered from polio, which has badly
affected one of his legs. Riding is supposed to help
him, so he learns to ride. At first, under the
auspices of his cousin, this is disastrous, but then
he finds a riding school run on more enlightened

principles, and matters start to improve. He learns to jump, and then buys the grey mare, Secret. Charles is
determined to show jump her successfully.

Patrick’s Pony
(Illustrated by Geoffrey Whittam, Brockhampton, 1956)
Reprinted by Brockhampton in 1957

printed in paperback by Beaver in 1985

Character list

Patrick lives with his grandfather and his pony Taffy, but after his grandfather becomes ill,

Patrick is carted off to a children’s home. Taffy goes too, but he suffers at the home. Patrick
then finds a foster family who live on a farm, but the father is hostile and won’t take Taffy.
Patrick and the daughter, Carol, are determined to rescue Taffy.

Pony Club Camp
(Illustrated by Sheila Rose, Collins 1957)
Reprinted in the Collins Pony Library in 1973.

Reprinted by Armada in paperback in 1974 and 1980,

and by Swift in laminated boards 1987

Character list

Characters in tent order

Noel has left school; Henry is on leave from the Army,
and it’s Pony Club Camp time. Noel and Henry
are now promoted to teaching. All of the Pony Club
have moved on, and there are plenty of new
characters too. It’s interesting to see them now
interested in each other as more than just someone who rides a pony. This is the book in which Noel and Henry kiss
(or do they?)

The Trick Jumpers
(Illustrated by Sheila Rose, Collins 1958)
Reprinted by Armada in paperback in 1965,

and in hardback in the Collins Pony Library in 1973

After a very unpromising start, and in fact middle and
most of the last part two, the Trelawny and Henderson
families finally unite to produce a show display that
will have any Health and Safety Executive fainting away
with sheer horror.

All Change
(Illustrated by Sheila Rose, Ernest Benn 1961)
Reprinted by Armada in 1963.

Reprinted as The Hidden Horse by Armada in 1982,
(160pp) and under this same title by J A Allen in 1994.

Character list

After Lord Conway’s death, the Conway family think
they will have to move from the estate after their father,
the Agent, crosses swords with the new owner.

Race Horse Holiday

Armada Original 1971, pb, London, 127 pp.

Reprinted by Armada in 1977,

and in hardback by Severn in 1979
By Cavalier in pb

Vivien and John spend their holidays at a local
racing stables,

Black Ebony
As part of Black Beauty’s Clan, Brockhamtpon, 1975, illus Elisabeth Grant

In Black Beauty’s Family, Red Fox, 2000
Knight pb, 1979

Character List

Black Ebony is Black Beauty’s youngest brother. His life is much like Black Beauty’s: he’s broken in, spends
time in the railway field, is sold to a member of the aristocracy and goes hunting. Then he is used as a mount
by a Mr Arkwright, and finds out about the grimness of life in the mines, both for humans and ponies.