Black Beauty’s Family is an historical series with stories contributed by all three Pullein-Thompson sisters. Each story takes one horse, either an ancestor of Black Beauty or a descendent, and tells its story. The foreword to the first collected volume of stories, written by ‘Black Abbott’ says:
‘Because of the world-wide interest shown in the auto-biography of my kinsman, Black Beauty, I have now taken the liberty of gathering together the life stories written by three other members of my extraordinarily talented family. These three mildewed manuscripts were found in a loft, in a saddle room medicine cupboard and beneath a pile of rubbish in a deserted loosebox, and, except for the occasional undecipherable word, have been published exactly as they were written.’
Publishing history
The series has quite a tangled publishing history. Some, but not all, of the stories were published separately, but some saw the light of day only in collections. Confusingly some collections have the same name but do not in fact contain the same stories, so what this section aims to do is disentangle which stories can be found where. Many, many thanks to Dawn Harrison who did the lion’s share of the work and research.
This list is of all the Black Beauty’s Family stories we have been able to trace:
Josephine Pullein-Thompson
Black Ebony, 1975
Nightshade, 1978
Black Raven the Witch, 1982
Diana Pullein-Thompson
Black Princess, 1975
Black Romany, 1978
Black Piper, 1982
Christine Pullein-Thompson
Black Velvet, 1975
Blossom, 1978
Black Pioneer, 1982
As far as I know, the editions shown in the pictures below are the only ones that were published as single volumes. JPT’s Black Swift is an historical story set during the Civil War, but it’s not badged as a Black Beauty’s Family story.
Below are all the compilations that we can find. I have listed them in chronological order.
Black Beauty’s Family
Hodder & Stoughton, 1978
Contains:
• Nightshade
• Black Romany
• Blossom
Black Beauty’s Clan
Hodder & Stoughton, 1975
Contains:
• Black Ebony
• Black Princess
• Black Velvet
Black Beauty’s Family 1
Beaver 1981
Contains:
• Black Romany
• Blossom
Black Beuty’s Family 2
Beaver, 1982
Contains:
• Black Raven the Witch
• Black Piper
• Black Pioneer
Black Beauty’s Family
Chancellor, 1986
Contains:
• Black Ebony
• Black Princess
• Black Velvet
• Nightshade
• Black Romany
• Blossom.
Black Beauty’s Family
Red Fox, 2000
Contains:
• Black Ebony
• Black Princess
• Black Velvet
More from Black Beauty’s Family
Red Fox, 2001
Contains:
• Nightshade
• Black Romany
• Blossom
American editions
Black Beauty’s Family
McGraw-Hill, 1980
Presumably, but not confirmed: Nightshade, Black Romany and Blossom
Black Beauty’s Clan
McGraw-Hill, 1980
Contains Black Ebony, Black Princess and Black Velvet