About the author
Anne Farrell also writes under the name Anne Heazlewood. She was born on 24 June, 1954, in Latrobe, Tasmania. She was one of several authors the paperback arm of Hodder & Stoughton, Knight books, picked up in the 1970s in the UK. Knight picked their pony books very well, as Farrell’s The Gift-Wrapped Pony, and Mavis Thorpe-Clark’s The Pony from Tarella, which they also published, are both excellent reads. Alas, no more books from the Guara series, from which The Gift-Wrapped Pony comes, were published in the UK.
The Mitchell family are the heroes of the Guara books, and the first book of the series opens with their pony, devoted escapologist, grey Arum being found in the hay field. She has learned how to open the pony paddock gate, but Mr Mitchell is not impressed with this cleverness, and threatens to sell Arum if she carries on her wicked ways.
Finding the books
All the books of the series are easy to find.
Links and sources
Austlit
Many thanks to Danyele Foster and Konstanze Allsopp for their help with the the pictures.
Series
Guara
Gift-wrapped Pony
Calf on Shale Hill
Eight Days at Guara
Shadow Summer
Bibliography (pony books only)
The Gift-Wrapped Pony
Hodder & Stoughton, Australia, 1973
Germany, Boje, 1973
Brockhampton, London, 1974
Knight, London, pb, 1977
The Mitchell family’s pony, Arum, is a confirmed escaper, and at last their father has had enough. If they can’t stop her getting loose, she will be sold, and so the family start their Save Arum campaign.
The Calf on Shale Hill
Hodder & Stoughton, 1974, illus Astra Lacis
Brockhampton Press, 1974
Lesley and Ian find a new born calf on Shale Hill, a runt abandoned by its mother. The calf, which they christen Skerrick, is so small that their neighbour decides it is not worth saving. But Lesley cannot leave the calf to die; and cares for it in secret. This leads to great complications, especially when eccentric Uncle Arthur comes to live in the cottage on Shale Hill.
Eight Days at Guara
Hodder and Stoughton, Sydney, 1976, illus Astra Lacis
The young Mitchells are unexpectedly left to cope on their own for eight days. This proves to be more of an effort than they anticipate, particularly as they are trying to keep their unparented state a secret.
Hodder and Stoughton, Sydney, 1978, illus Astra Lacis
Shadow Summer
