Advent Calendar 17 - Ruby Ferguson - Jill's Gymkhana

-
Many thanks to Vanessa Robertson for suggesting this book for the advent calendar. The advent calendar thus far has had only a cursory mention of Jill - or to be more accurate, Black Boy, and not even him, his day rug. The day rug crops up again here, because it's one of Jill's Christmas presents in the first Jill story, Jill's Gymkhana.


Some pony books shoot through Christmas at a rate of knots, but in Jill's Gymkhana you get an entire chapter titled Christmas. 


While writing this, I've changed my mind and am going to focus on a different bit of the chapter, as I have covered Black Boy's day rug every year I've done this calendar. Why? Why am I obsessed by this?


So, here is the scene where Ann says there are other things in life other than pony books. Ann, being super organised, has already given Jill a present (yellow riding gloves), and Jill is mortified as she had not even thought of giving Ann anything. However, Mrs Crewe comes to the rescue with a signed copy of her latest book.
"After dinner we cleared away and I washed up while Mummy wrote one or two thank-you letters, because if you don't do these in the first flush of enthusiasm you can't think what to say and even forget what the person sent you. 
I had hardly finished when Ann arrived. She had got one of her little sisters with her, riding on a new tricyle, and Ann had to see that she didn't fall off or twist her ankles or do any of the dire things that her mother thought she might do. 
To my surprise Ann was quite thrilled with the 'Winnie' book, and couldn't get over the fact that Mummy had written it. She said she would start reading it as soon as she got home and was sure she would love it as it would be a nice change from pony books.



I am quite tempted now to follow Mrs Crewe's lead and search out the fluffiest, gooiest children's books I can find to finish off this advent calendar.

~  0  ~

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rollkur and the blue tongue

-
I've been meaning to write about this all week, but reading the exclusive in Horse and Hound about the controversy tipped me over the edge. For my non-horsy readers, rollkur is a training/warming up technique used by some dressage riders. It basically involves riding the horse with its jaw pulled in virtually to its chest, in order to increase suppleness. Patrik Kittel , a Swedish competitor in Odense was videoed riding his horse in this way. If you watch the video , you'll see the horse's tongue hanging out - blue. It takes a while before the rider notices this. When he does, he stops, puts the horse's tongue back in, and carries on. There are two things which bother me about this. Firstly, I am fully aware large sections of the dressage world, and some of its brighest stars, consider rollkur perfectly ok, but the FEI guidelines state this practice should only be for short periods, allowing the horse to rest. Patrick Kittel apparently rode the horse for two hou...
Read more

Archibald, don't eat the bedclothes

-
Image
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...
Read more

Dick Sparrow - 40 Horse Hitch, and Neil Dimmock's 46 Percherons

-
Image
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.
Read more