PBOTD 13th November: Christine Pullein-Thompson - The Impossible Horse

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The Impossible Horse (1957) is in some ways an odd book. My first experience of it was the Dragon paperback pictured below, with the author's name as Christine Pullein-Thompson. Originally, however, the book was published under the pseudonym Christine Keir. The book was something of a departure from Christine's previous work, which featured teenagers fighting against adversity. The big difference was romance: when I read her earlier David and Pat series, I'd wondered if there might be some romance between the two, but there's nothing, not a scrap. The idea of it is there, as Pat's sent off to be a debutante and have a London season. The entire reasoning behind one's season was to find a suitable husband, but this is never mentioned explicitly. 


So, it was under a pseudonym that Christine first introduced romance. Heroine Jan has left school and has started up a business re-schooling horses. One of her clients is the handsome Benedictine, who, too much for the girl to whom he was sold, reared and came over backwards with her. Jan is convinced he can be rehabilitated, and the book sees her doing this, interwoven with her nascent romance with the handsome Guy. This book was utter manna to me: horses, and romance, plenty of one and not too much of the other. 



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Comments

Oonagh said…
Oh my. I read this book when I was about 14 or 15 and it was one that always stuck in my mind. I was searching to find the book recently and only came across it yesterday online. I am now 59.I moved to the country from suburbia 19 years ago and going trecking near my house it reminded me of an illustration in the book of Jan (only know the name now after reading this) on her horse and beyond the fields a church spire in the distance and I just thought this is it! I am where I'm supposed to be! I did remember that her love interest was called Guy! I now have to get a copy of the book and read it again 40 odd years later!
27 August 2023 at 17:14
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