About the author
Gillian Rubinstein was born in England, and spent her childhood between her mother’s home in Nigeria, an English village, and boarding school. After studying languages at Oxford, she worked as an editor, journalist and film critic, and emigrated to Australia in 1973. Her first novel for children, Space Demons, was published in 1986. She has written over thirty books and won several awards, including the Children’s Book Council Book of the Year Award twice. Gillian Rubinstein is married with three grown up children and lives in Goolwa, South Australia.
She said: ‘My main ambitions as a child were to be a writer, speak lots of languages, learn to ride properly and have a happy family, and I’ve achieved all of these to a certain extent.’
Her story Pure Chance is based on a real horse lent to her family and ridden by her youngest daughter, Susannah.
Finding the books
Both books are easy to find, and not expensive. Both were published in the UK: Pure Chance seems not to have had a separate Australian publication.
Links and sources
Gillian Rubinstein’s website
An interview with Gillian Rubinstein
Bibliography (pony books only)
Pure Chance
Walker Books, London, 1998, 94 pp. Illus Caroline Binch
Walker Books, London, 2004
Lizzie longs to have her own horse: her best friend Sarah rides, and is going to get a pony, but it’s all too expensive for Lizzie’s family. Then Lizzie meets Moya, and a little horse called Spud.
Flashback: The Amazing Adventures of a Film Horse
Puffin Books, Australia, 1990 75pp. Mammoth, London, 1991
When Antony and his pony Flash run into the famous film star Tasman True, amazing adventures begin for them both as they are drawn into the glamorous, colourful world of the movies – a world where appearances are deceptive and nothing is what it seems…
