Sweet Rock: why is it so obscure?

I have recently finished reading a copy of Gillian Baxter's Sweet Rock. This is the least well-known of all Ms. Baxter's books and I myself did not even know it existed until someone told me about it not long ago. I suspect I am not the only one in a similar state of ignorance. The book is fairly rare and as far as I am aware was not reprinted at all. The question however is why? The usual reasons for lack of reprints are because the book was not very good or not popular. Perhaps it was not popular but as for not being very good...in my opinion it is one of the author's better works.

The only reason I can give for its lack of popularity is that it does not fit neatly into the usual pony book mould, and contains elements which may be considered controversial, at least at the time of publishing.

The story begins in quite a traditional way with our heroine Sharon bemoaning the fact that she does not have her own pony. She then meets Chris who owns a pony called Sweet Rock. She falls in love with Rock and soon becomes friends with Chris. But Chris is not your typical character. On the whole he is a bit of a wastrel, he does not treat his pony well, in fact has deliberately trained her to bolt and rear, and is always causing trouble. But Sharon finds herself drawn to him, his charm, love of life and willingness to help seem to balance out his bad points. When Chris has to leave for a few months he asks Sharon to look after Rock for him. With the help of a local riding school instructor, she re-trains Rock and begins to win classes on her. But then Chris returns. Although she is happy to see him, she is upset when Chris reclaims Rock, seeing her as an easy way to make money by winning in local shows. But Chris does not have the patience to do well on Rock and things start going wrong between him and Rock and Sharon.

This is as much a story about a troubled boy as a pony book. Chris is a complex and compelling character and it is up to Sharon to redeem not only the troublesome Rock but her equally troublesome master. The book explores whether nature or nurture will win out. Will Chris follow in his shady father's footsteps or can the good influence of Sharon and her mother help to change him? In my opinion this parallel of the traditional 'girl makes unreliable pony good' plot with that of Sharon's similar influence over Chris gives the book a far deeper and more subtle feel than that of your average pony book, but I can't help wondering if it is this more complex element which caused the book to lose popularity. I am reading it from an adult perspective, but the story may possibly have been just too for the younger reader wanting their usual pony book fix.

Also, the character of Chris may have been just too controversial for the time. Were there perhaps complaints from readers about his behaviour? Normally such bad behaviour would be consigned to one of the 'baddies' in a book but in Sweet Rock Chris is ostensibly on the side of the 'goodies.' The blurring of boundaries between the black and white of good and bad is in my opinion what makes the book such an excellent read, but perhaps this was just too subtle for a childish reader (or perhaps censorious parent) to fully grasp.

Whatever the reason it is a shame that this book wasn't more widely published or better known, for it is an excellent pony book which also has a bit of 'bite.' This makes it particularly suitable for the adult pony book reader. If you liked 'Bargain Horses' another quirky read which looks at life from a slightly off-beat angle, I am sure you will also enjoy this book. So please try and find a copy, read it, and spread the word!

Pony Mad & Precocious

We have been talking about the ages of pony book authors in a couple of threads on the ponymadbooklovers forum and what really struck me is that there seems to be a trend amongst the writers of these books to start very young. Some of the authors who wrote their first pony book when only teenagers include:

K. M .Peyton - 15 when she wrote Sabre The Horse From the Sea (under the name of Kathleen Herald) and still a teenager when she penned her second novel The Mandrake.

Moyra Charlton - amazingly only around 11 or 12 when she wrote her first book Tally Ho.

Primrose Cumming - a teenager when she wrote Doney

Sheila Chapman - wrote all of her four books when very young.

Gillian Baxter - a teenager when she penned what is probably still her best-loved book Jump For the Stars

Avrill Knott - wrote Pony of Gold when she was 15

The Pullein-Thompson sisters - teenagers when they collaborated on their first book Picotee

Granted, some of these early efforts did not scale the heights of timeless prose, however one or two were amazingly mature works. In particular, I would highlight K. M. Peyton's second novel The Mandrake: it is hard to reconcile the maturity and skill of this book with the actual age of its author.

It is difficult to come up with a reason for this precocity. One suggestion is that children matured more quickly then. But if we examine the ages of some of the non-pony female authors of the same period, such as Enid Blyton, E. M. Brent-Dyer, Noel Streatfield, Richmal Crompton and Lorna Hill, we find that all of these authors were in their 20s to 40s when they began writing novels. It does in fact seem a trend amongst horsy rather than general authors.

Does the responsibility of looking after a pony and the discipline of learning to ride make a child grow up more quickly? This however would not account for the early talents of K. M. Peyton who did not actually have a horse before she wrote her first books.

Did the horsy set move in more upper class circles in which some sort of 'old boy's network' would enable the young author to take a fast track into publishing. This could of course account for the P-T sisters who came from an extremely literary circle and whose acquaintances would of course have included publishers, but once again it would not account for others such as K. M. Peyton who came from ordinary working class backgrounds.

Perhaps there is some mysterious link between loving ponies and wanting to write about them. Do horses inspire a lyricism, a desire to share one's love of them with others via the written word? I'm sure I am not the only one who, as a teenager, wrote pony stories or even a book. (My own effort has (perhaps mercifully) been lost somewhere in the seemingly endless clutter of childhood detritus. But was I feeling the same urge to write as my authoress heroines?

It would be nice to come up with a theory to neatly explain the precocity (and if anyone has any suggestions please let me know!) However, whatever the reason, let us be grateful that our favourite authors did not consign their early works to a dusty attic along with their old dolls and teddies, but allowed the rest of us to share their youthful writings.

Bargain Horses...one of her best!

Apart from the Bobby and Shelta series, I have never been a huge fan of Gillian Baxter's stories for older children. Although her books are pleasant enough reads, for me they lack a certain something. (And I am ashamed to say, despite two or three attempts, I have never managed to get to the end of Tan and Tarmac!) However I had heard good things about Bargain Horses and the sound of the plot was intriguing so I thought I would give it a go.

I'm really glad I did. IMHO Bargain Horses is one of the author's best, perhaps the best since the Bobby and Shelta books. The plot centres around Gemma, a sixteen-ish girl whose mother has a strange habit of buying cheap horses, hoping that she can miraculously transform one of them into the next top eventing star. Her obsession has driven away her husband, used up all their money until they have to live in a caravan, and is now taking over Gemma's life.

What I love most about this book is the way it turns the usual pony book scenario on its head. Whereas we usually have a horse-mad heroine whose parents are constantly trying to get them to do more school work and have a life outside horses, this book is the complete opposite. Gemma is the one who wants to do well at school and is prevented by her mother who feels that school gets in the way of their training schedule! Gemma thinks that she may possibly like to have a career away from horses, it is her mother who wants her to become a top eventer. Unlike most pony book heroines, Gemma feels that horses are getting in the way of other things she would like to do: such as go to parties and have a boyfriend.

The book has a plot that keeps you reading (although I did guess the end!) and the characters of Gemma and her mother Mary are brilliantly drawn. Mary must be one of the most three-dimensional adult characters in any pony book. Sadly in this genre, the adults are often very sketchily drawn or simply caricatures, but not so in this novel. Gemma, too, is a multi-faceted character who is torn between her love of horses and her yearning to have a life of her own.

Bargain Horses is part of the series of pony books published by J.A.Allen in the 1990s, most of which are aimed at older teenagers and adults (as is this one). I have read most of the books in this series and they have all been excellent. They are particularly suitable for adult horse and pony enthusiasts, especially this book.

I have now completed a more detailed review of the book. To read it click here

Christmas...not so bad after all?

I am not really a Christmassy person. I used to quite like it when it meant escaping work for a couple of weeks, but even that bonus is missing now that I am self-employed.

Everything about it seems to have become an irritation, from the hideously cheerful Christmas songs that begin playing everywhere from October onwards, to the desperate grubbing around trying to find a present more interesting than the usual socks, to the yearly search for the Christmas tree and decorations which never seem to be in the place you remember putting them, to the endless trailing round visiting relatives whom though you only see once a year, its still once a year too much. It's enough to have you reaching for the brandy instead of putting it in the Christmas cake! And then of course there is the orgy of eating and drinking leaving you feeling full of guilt and indigestion as a year's dieting is blown in a week.

But before you are sending me the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future, I do have some nice words to say about Christmas. Well, one, really. Books.

Santa has thankfully ignored the fact I have not been a good little girl and brought me a bumper crop of pony books which I have been looking for to add to my collection. These include Gillian Baxter's Bargain Horses, K. M. Peyton's The Sound of Distant Cheering and The Grey Ghost by Carolyn Henderson, none of which I have read before. But the best of all by far are a pair of books whose arrival has almost made me want to start singing Jingle Bells and wearing a pair of furry antlers on my head.

These are a first edition of Sabre The Horse From the Sea by Kathleen Herald (aka K. M. Peyton) and also by her a 1950s edition of The Mandrake a Pony.

So pass the After Eight Mints and turkey sandwiches round one more time, turn up the volume on that Christmas Compilation CD, I don't care. I will have my head buried in one of these beauties.

Maybe Christmas isn't so bad after all...