A couple of changes afoot

Regular viewers may notice that I have been tweaking around with the blog. A couple more pony blog related links have appeared and a couple of new sections.

I decided to put the labels side on it, as obviously, due to the fact the sheer number of books they wrote, that it will be very time consuming in 2 years time to go through the number of posts to find a review about The Boy and The Donkey (aka The Donkey Race) for example. This is particularly true for Christine, who as well as being the most prolific of the sisters, has written tons of books, and it is her that I am leaving last (as well as the fact that my want list is longer for Christine that Josephine).

Also, if like me, when you were first starting to collect the P-T books (or any pony books), you think from childhood you have finished the series and read them all, only to find that there are tons more. This is particularly true for me about the Jackie books, my mother very kindly bought me the Knight/Hodder editions of the early 1990s, and for some strange reason they only published 6 books. Not the first 6, but (apart from Jackie Won A Pony) a random 6. I was most annoyed to find out that there are indeed 16!! Fortunately, except for the elusive Jackie's Steeplechase Adventure I have them all, albeit different editions. So I have rectified this problem, as every single book that belongs to a "series", I have labelled with an appropriate tag. Sometimes, I have found, that it is not obvious a book is part of a series: a book title with the words Phantom Horse would be obvious, but until it is pointed out or you read it for yourself, you wouldnt know that Riders On The March and They Rode To Victory were the same series. So quickly someone can click on the series title and find out which book belong to the series.

Speaking of Christine, Jane Badger has finally finished her Christine section on her website, she has very kindly acknowledged me, both in the article and in her blog. She has kindly done a section on the Black Beauty's Family series of books, which is very useful, it does pose a headache trying to work out what story is in what book. If only Knight published them all separately, then it would make life easier. But, now, with the exception of Black Raven and the Witch, Black Piper and Black Pioneer, it's a case of finding the edition you like the best, if you dont have them already in your collection.

I had a very fruitful pony book week. I received in the post the following books:-

Little Black Pony by Christine Pullein-Thompson
The Horse Sale by Christine Pullein-Thompson
The Best Pony for Me! by Christine Pullein-Thompson
Black Beauty's Family 1 by Diana and Christine Pullein-Thompson
Six Ponies (Fidra books edition) by Josephine Pullein-Thompson
Fly By Night (Fidra books edition) by K M Peyton
The Ten Pound Pony by Veronica Westlake


The Horse Sale is the lovely Sheila Rose edition, which you can see on the right. As previously said I prefer illustrated over photographic covers, though as far as I am aware of, there are only 2 editions of this book (for some strange reason I keep on thinking there are 3), both with illustrated covers. But this one stood out for it's sheer simplicity. Some of the pony books out there with illustrated covers have such busy backgrounds that it takes it's beauty away. That is why I was particularly impressed with the cover for Veronica Westlake's The Ten Pound Pony (I dont have a scan of that), as it is done quite simply too. There are times when illustrators go over the top. Sadly, with the exception of Anne Bullen, the P-T books dont have the same illustrators consistently, and some of them range from the superb (Anne Bullen) to the lesser quality (Peter Clover, he did The Best Pony for Me). Sadly, Anne Bullen died in 1963, so it is understandable that she couldnt do them (considering the sisters last published a pony book less than 10 years ago) all.

I have also planned out roughly when I am doing each book, of course, this is subject to change, as (shock horror!) I dont have all the P-T pony books. If, for some reason, I dont have that particular book, then of course, I will have to move onto another P-T book. But never fear, they will get done eventually. Plus, I dont have a crystal ball, if some misfortune occurs and I cant get online, then of course, I cant update the blog. I am undecided (this is when it comes to Christine), to do some of the books together: such as the Candy series (Candy Goes to the Gymkhana and Candy Stops A Train) or the Sophy series (I Want That Pony!, The Best Pony For Me!, The Pony Test and The Pony Picnic) as they are meant for the younger age group than what the majority of Christine's books were for, and they only take about 5 mins to read, as obviously, they have less pages and bigger (typeface wise) words than compared to say, Phantom Horse. There's not much you can say without giving the story away on those. But I will do them, never fear!

I'll probably tweak it again in the future, I am undecided at the moment whether the Blog Archive should come before or after the profile.

If anyone else knows of a pony blog or a suitable pony book related link, please send it to me, and I will consider it.