Riding Days in Hook’s Hollow

Country Life, 1944, illus Stanley Lloyd

Ponies and Caravans

Country Life, 1941 (with Eva Ducat)

Sea Ponies

Country Life, 1935 (with Eva Ducat)

The Ponies of Bunts

Country Life, 1933 (with Eva Ducat)

Marjorie Mary Oliver wrote some of the earliest pony books:  books which focused on children and their adventures rather than telling the story from the pony’s point of view.  The books also broke new ground by being illustrated with photographs.  These have a huge period charm today, showing as they do a world where it was perfectly acceptable to ride in your swimming suit with no hat.

The books themselves are charming.  I am particularly fond of Sea Ponies, whic is perhaps the most intense evocation of a lost world.  The Hook Hollow  series have wonderful Stanley Lloyd illustrations, and some exotically named children who have straightforward holiday adventures.  These really are wonderful escapist reading; reflecting a world which possibly never really existed, though we all probably wish it had.