Liz Jones wrote The Exmoor Files, in which she takes on an ex racehorse, and blames the Pullein-Thompsons for it. They invited her to tea, and you can read about it here.
What a marvelous article. Imagine being asked to tea by your favorite authors! I never heard of the PT sisters and their books as a kid (being in the US) so I still have a lot of catching up to do. I love even just reading the stories of the PT girls growing up--such wonderful anecdotes (swapping out the riding gear at the gymkhanas!).
Yes - it's a world away from the girls in National Velvet and their muslins at the local show, which is the picture strongest in my mind at the moment whenever anyone mentions a show!
I have to admit I was lucky enough to meet both PTs, and it was great!
Anonymous said…
Popescu is an unusual surname! Did Christine marry a Romanian?
I had a book by Charlotte Popescu as a kid, but can't remember the name of it.
Oh, how amazing to meet them. It's a chance to look into a lost world, isn't it? I Wanted a Pony and Three Ponies and Shannan were my favourites. I still love them.
I'm not usually that keen on Liz Jones articles but I have to say that she has found her forte with this. It was very good and I was intrigued by the lives of the sisters and the books, too.
My friend Louise sent me this picture today. It's from a children's book with the rather wince-making title For The Wee Ones. I thought, when I read that (because I read the message before I looked at the picture) that the picture was going to be a typical winsome production from the school of artists who think (or who are paid to think) that the child is a thing sent from God and a blissful thing. They had obviously never met a child, and certainly not mine. I should have known Louise better. The artist responsible for Archibald, don't eat the bedclothes slipped this one past the editors. Just look at the poor, broken Mother Rabbit. She knows she has not the faintest chance of being listened to, and poor thing, she is stooped in the way of a mother to whom this is just the lastest in a long line of horror; with nothing good to come. And Archibald is obviously the spawn of the Devil. Just look at those eyes. He'll have the bed after he's finished the bedclothes
Here's a clip of Dick Sparrow driving 40 horses. It's an amazing sight, particularly when the shot changes to show the team from the rear and you get the great incongruity of modern American corporate architecture as a background to the wagon and horses. I love the anticipation in the video: the sense of something amazing being just round the corner is palpable. Thanks to Christina Wilsdon for telling me about this world record 46 Percheron hitch (alas just stills) but you get the idea.
As you have probably realised by now, as a child, I was pony-obsessed. My favourite monthly reading was Pony Magazine, which I read cover to cover: every advert; every word. I recently bought a set of Pony Magazines from the 1960s. I actually took Pony in the 1970s, but there wasn’t a lot of difference between the decades in the style and contents of the magazine. One advert which took me instantly back to that state of childhood wanting; longing for things I couldn’t have, and trying to work out what I could do to afford them, was for Jacatex riding clothes. How I loved that ad. The Pat hacking jacket; the Pat riding mac and the Pat jodhpurs. Who was Pat? Was there a Pat? Or were the clothes just something that was off pat? It was never explained. Jacatex adverts didn’t change much over the years. The 1969 ad below is the same one that I remember from the 1970s, a cheerful pony girl in immaculate clothes. I don’t know whether Jacatex ever did haul themselves into the modern age a
Comments
I have to admit I was lucky enough to meet both PTs, and it was great!
I had a book by Charlotte Popescu as a kid, but can't remember the name of it.
Diana was my favourite P-T.
Liz (sorry, I'm not logged in on this computer)