Susan Richards - Chosen by a Horse Constable: £7.99 This is yet another book that's been in the review pile for months: so long, in fact, I can't remember when I got it. It's about a rescue horse: a Standardbred mare called Lay Me Down, and the woman who rescued her, Susan Richards. Lay Me Down was rescued when she and her companions were seized by their owner, who had neglected them so badly they were nearly at the point of starvation. At first, it wasn't even clear if Lay Me Down would survive, but she and her foal both did. The foal was reclaimed by the abusive owner, who had to sign all the foals over to his vet in lieu of fees, but Lay Me Down stayed. She really was a quite exceptional mare, and Susan Richards shows you just what a complete sweetie this horse was. Despite the horrors she had known, she bore no one any malice, and was always accepting and kind: no mareish nasties at all, unlike one of Susan Richard's other horses, the Morgan Georgi...
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The Sun hasn't risen here yet but the moon is quite beautiful this morning.
Question for you: Do you see the resemblance between Michael Morpurgo's "War Horse" and Brian Carter's "Jack"? Just curious.
Morpurgo's "War Horse".
Jack is the name of a young man who grew up in Devon, and raised a horse named, "Bethlehem", or "Beth"
for short. Bethlehem is requisitioned for the artillary during WWI, and Jack, when he becomes old enough, joins the service.... I could continue on, but anyone can plainly see the similarities, which only become more and more as you read the two stories. There is not much difference between the book "Jack" and "War Horse", the book/movie, even to the French farmer and the French girl who take care of either Beth or "Joey",as the War Horse is named.
Why am I bringing this up? Because I'm curious as to the history of these two authors writing such similar stories, and if anyone else has made the same observation.