The Pullein-Thompson sisters – Josephine Pullein-Thompson MBE (3 April 1924-), Diana Pullein-Thompson (born 1 October 1925) and Christine Pullein-Thompson (1 October 1925–2 December 2005) – are British writers of many pony books, mostly fictional, aimed at children and mostly popular with girls. They started at a very young age, initially writing collectively, and they were at their peak in the 1950s and 1960s, but their popularity has endured. They have written a collective autobiography Fair Girls and Grey Horses.

Background

All three of the Pullein-Thompson sisters have written at least one book under a different name; Josephine wrote one under the pseudonym of Josephine Mann, Diana wrote three books under her married name of Diana Farr and Christine wrote two books under the name of Christine Keir. Further details of the titles are given in the relevant section.

Their mother, Joanna Cannan

Joanna Cannan

Joanna Cannan was a writer of pony books and detective novels. Her pony books were aimed primarily at children.Youngest daughter of Oxford don Charles Cannan and Mary Wedderburn, also cousin of Gilbert Cannan, it is perhaps her children she is best known for, being mother to Josephine...

 (1898–1961), sister of the poet May Cannan, wrote similar equestrian stories, but is better known for detective mysteries. Their father was Captain Harold J "Cappy" Pullein-Thompson, who was badly injured during the First World War. Consequently he made his money by selling refrigerators, and did not publish any works. They also had a brother, Denis Cannan

Denis Cannan

Denis Cannan was a British dramatist, playwright and script writer. Born Denis Pullein-Thompson, the son of Captain Harold J. Pullein-Thompson and novelist Joanna Cannan, he changed his name by deed poll in 1964. His younger sisters were Josephine, Diana and Christine Pullein-Thompson.Born in...

, who was an author as well, primarily a playwright

Playwright

A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...

, though he had not published as many works as his sisters.

The sisters are also related to the British novelist and dramatist Gilbert Cannan

Gilbert Cannan

Gilbert Cannan was a British novelist and dramatist.-Early life:Born in Manchester of Scottish descent, he got on badly with his family, and in 1897 he was sent to live in Oxford with the economist Edwin Cannan...

 and the academic Charles Cannan. Joanna Cannan

Joanna Cannan

Joanna Cannan was a writer of pony books and detective novels. Her pony books were aimed primarily at children.Youngest daughter of Oxford don Charles Cannan and Mary Wedderburn, also cousin of Gilbert Cannan, it is perhaps her children she is best known for, being mother to Josephine...

 and May Cannan were daughters of Charles Cannan, making Gilbert Cannan their cousin. Diana later wrote an autobiography of Cannan's life. Their father was the brother of Emily Muriel Pullein Thompson, who was the mother of the composer John Gardner

John Gardner (composer)

John Linton Gardner, CBE is an English composer of classical music.-Biography:Gardner was born in Manchester, England and brought up in Ilfracombe, North Devon. His father Alfred Linton Gardner was a local GP and amateur composer who was killed in action in the last months of the First World War....

 who is therefore also their cousin.

Christine had four children, two sons and two daughters, as a result of her marriage to Julian Popescu in 1954. One of her daughters Charlotte Popescu is an author of children's pony books, which are not as widely known as her mother's or her aunts'. Christine's other children were Phillip, Mark and Lucy. In addition she had eight grandchildren, Oliver, Daniel, Anna, Benjamin, Thomas and Hamish, Edwina and Maxwell. Diana married art historian Dennis Farr, and had two children, a son and a daughter. The National Portrait Gallery in London contains portraits of Diana and her two children.

The sisters' books are strongly oriented towards ponies, and for over 60 years they have been much loved by young girls with a strong enthusiasm for horses and ponies. Diana has often written books aimed at a slightly older audience, including some set in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

. Christine was the most prolific and also wrote a number of stories which are not specifically concerned with horses or ponies; these are mostly aimed at younger children. Apart from the books listed below, all three sisters have also edited and contributed to various anthologies of horse and pony stories.

Josephine Pullein-Thompson

• Six Ponies (1946)
• I Had Two Ponies (1947)
• Plenty of Ponies (1949)
• Pony Club Team (1950)
• The Radney Riding Club (1951)
• Prince Among Ponies (1952)
• One Day Event (1954)
• Show Jumping Secret (1955)
• Patrick's Pony (1956)
• Pony Club Camp (1957)
• The Trick Jumpers (1958)
• All Change (1961; later republished as The Hidden Horse)
• How Horses Are Trained (non-fiction, 1961)
• Ponies In Colour (non-fiction) (1962)
• Learn To Ride Well (non-fiction, 1966, later republished as How To Ride Well)
• Horses and Their Owners (non-fiction, 1970)
• Race Horse Holiday (1971, also published as Racehorse Holiday)
• Proud Riders (1973)
• Black Ebony (1975)
• Star Riders Of The Moor (1976; later republished as Star Riders)
• Ride Better And Better (non-fiction, 1977)
• Fear Treks The Moor (1978)
• Black Nightshade (1978)
• Ride To The Rescue (1979)
• Ghost Horse On The Moor (1980)
• The No-Good Pony (1981)
• Treasure On The Moor (1982)
• The Prize Pony (1982)
• Black Raven (1982)
• Pony Club Cup (1982)
• Save The Ponies (1984)
• Mystery On The Moor (1984)
• Pony Club Challenge (1984)
• Pony Club Trek (1985)
• Suspicion Stalks The Moor (1986)
• Black Swift (1991)
• A Job With Horses (1994)

Dates Unknown:

• Youth In The Saddle (contributor)

Josephine also wrote the adult mystery books Gin and Murder (1959), Murder Strikes Pink (1963) and They Died In The Spring (1960). She also wrote the book A Place With Two Faces (1972) under the pseudonym of Josephine Mann. She has long been involved with the British branch of the writers' organisation International PEN

International PEN

PEN International , the worldwide association of writers, was founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere....

, which campaigns for writers' freedoms in authoritarian or tyrannical regimes. She was awarded the MBE

MBE

MBE can stand for:* Mail Boxes Etc.* Management by exception* Master of Bioethics* Master of Bioscience Enterprise* Master of Business Engineering* Master of Business Economics* Mean Biased Error...

 in 1984.

The book Six Ponies and Pony Club Team are now available to buy from Fidra Books

Fidra Books

Fidra Books is a publisher based in Edinburgh which specialises in reissuing forgotten children's books, especially those from the 1940s onwards....

 – who are also republishing some of Joanna Cannan

Joanna Cannan

Joanna Cannan was a writer of pony books and detective novels. Her pony books were aimed primarily at children.Youngest daughter of Oxford don Charles Cannan and Mary Wedderburn, also cousin of Gilbert Cannan, it is perhaps her children she is best known for, being mother to Josephine...

's books – which includes original illustrations and text.

Josephine is (and has been for many years)a vice president of the Woodland Hunt Branch of the Pony Club, based in the Henley on Thames area.

Diana Pullein-Thompson

• I Wanted A Pony (1946)
• Three Ponies and Shannan (1947)
• The Penny Fields (1949, has been published as The Pennyfields)
• A Pony To School (1950)
• A Pony For Sale (1951)
• Janet Must Ride (1953)
• Horses At Home and Friends Must Part (1954)
• Riding With The Lyntons (1956)
• Riding For Children (non-fiction, 1957)
• The Boy & The Donkey (1958, later republished as The Donkey Race)
• The Secret Dog (1958)
• The Boy Who Came To Stay (1960)
• The Hidden River (1960)
• Bindi Must Go (1962)
• The Battle Of Clapham Common (1962)
• The Hermit's Horse (1974)
• Black Princess (1975)
• Ponies In The Valley (1976)
• Black Romany (1978)
• Ponies On The Trail (1978)
• Ponies In Peril (1979)
• Cassidy In Danger (1979, later republished as This Pony Is Dangerous)
• Only a Pony (1980)
• The Pony Seekers (1981)
• A Foal For Candy (1981)
• Black Piper (1982)
• A Pony Found (1983)
• Dear Pup: Letters To A Young Dog (1988)
• The Long Ride Home (1996)

Dates unknown:

• Youth In The Saddle (contributor)

The books Five at 10: Prime Ministers' Consorts Since 1957 (1985), Gilbert Cannan; A Georgian Prodigy (1978) and Choosing (1988) have been published under her married name (Diana Farr) in addition to her maiden (and better known) name.

Christine Pullein-Thompson

• We Rode To The Sea (1948)
• We Hunted Hounds (1949)
• I Carried The Horn (1951)
• Goodbye To Hounds (1952)
• Riders From Afar (1954)
• Phantom Horse (1955)
• A Day To Go Hunting (1956)
• The First Rosette (1956)
• The Second Mount (1957)
• Stolen Ponies (1957)
• The Impossible Horse (1957)
• Three To Ride (1958)
• The Lost Pony (1959)
• Ride By Night (1960)
• The Horse Sale (1960)
• For Want Of A Saddle (1960)
• Giles And The Elephant (1960)
• The Empty Field (1961)
• Giles And The Greyhound (1961)
• The Open Gate (1962)
• Bandits In The Hills (1962)
• Giles And The Canal (1962)
• The Gipsy Children (1962)
• The Doping Affair (1963, later published as The Pony Dopers)
• The Eastmans In Brittany (1964)
• Granny Comes To Stay (1964)
• No-One At Home (1964)
• Homeless Katie (1964)
• The Boys From The Cafe (1965)
• The Eastmans Move House (1965)
• A Dog In A Pram (1965)
• The Eastmans Find A Boy (1966)
• The Stolen Car (1966)
• A Day To Remember (1966)
• The Lost Cow (1966)
• Little Black Pony (1967)
• Robbers In The Night (1967)
• Room To Let (1968)
• Nigel Eats His Words (1969)
• Phantom Horse Comes Home (1970)
• Riders On The March (1970)
• Phantom Horse Goes To Ireland (1972)
• They Rode To Victory(1972)
• A Pony Scrapbook (1972)
• I Rode A Winner (1973)
• A Second Pony Scrapbook (1973)
• Follyfoot Pony Quiz Book (1974)
• Black Velvet (1975)
• Good Riding (non-fiction, 1975)
• Christine Pullein-Thompson's Book of Pony Stories (1975)
• A Pony To Love (non-fiction, 1975)
• Strange Riders At Black Pony Inn (1976)
• Mystery At Black Pony Inn (1976)
• Pony Patrol (1977)
• Pony Patrol S.O.S. (1977)
• Pony Patrol Fights Back (1977)
• Christine Pullein-Thompson's Second Book of Pony Stories (1977)
• Blossom (1978)
• Pony Parade (1978)
• Prince At Black Pony Inn (1978)
• Secrets At Black Pony Inn (1978)
• Riding For Fun (non-fiction) (1978)
• Improve Your Riding (non-fiction, 1979)
• Phantom Horse In Danger (1980)
• Pony Patrol And The Mystery Horse (1981)
• Phantom Horse Goes To Scotland (1981)
• Father Unknown (1981)
• Black Pioneer (1982)
• Ponies In The Park (1982)
• Ponies In The Forest (1983)
• Ponies In The Blizzard (1984)
• Wait For Me Phantom Horse (1985)
• A Home For Jessie (1986)
• Please Save Jessie (1987)
• Stay At Home, Ben (1987)
• Careless Ben (1988)
• The Big Storm (1988)
• The Road Through The Hills (1988)
• Candy Goes To The Gymkhana (1989)
• Candy Stops A Train (1989)
• Catastrophe At Black Pony Inn (1989)
• Good Deeds At Black Pony Inn (1989)
• Smoke In The Hills (1989)
• Across The Frontier (1990)
• Runaway Ben (1990)
• Come Home, Jessie (1991)
• The Long Search (1991)
• I Want That Pony! (1993)
• A Pony In Distress (1994)
• The Best Pony For Me! (1995)
• Horsehaven (1996)
• Bedtime Pony Stories (1997)
• Sundance Saves The Day (1997)
• More Bedtime Pony Stories (1997)
• The Pony Test (1997)
• Incredible Pony Tales (1998)
• Magical Pony Tales (1998)
• The Pony Picnic (1998)
• Havoc At Horsehaven (1999)
• Horsehaven Lives On (1999)
• A Yo-Yo For Sam (1999)

Dates unknown:

• Triple Adventure (co-author)

The title The Impossible Horse has also been published under the name of Christine Keir, which may have been a pseudonym, as it is the same story. Also, the book Riding (1983) which is part of the Granada Guides series, has also been published under the same name.

Collectively

• It Began With Picotee (1946)
• Fair Girls and Grey Horses (1996)
• Pullein-Thompson Treasury Of Horse And Pony Stories (1995)

External links

• The National Portrait Gallery (illustration of the sisters)
• Farr, Diana. "Chronic ills: Almost 50 years after surviving the scourge of TB, Diana Farr finds little has changed", The Guardian
  The Guardian
  The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
  
  (UK), 27 January 1999
• Christine Pullein-Thompson (obituary), The Daily Telegraph
  The Daily Telegraph
  The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
  
  , 06 Dec 2005
• A pony books website with information about the authors and their books
• Some history of the pony story