About the author
Vane Erskine Bannisdale was the pseudonym of Vane Erskine Portal. She (he?) wrote two pony books, Back to the Hills and Riders of the Hills, both of which were illustrated by Lionel Edwards.
Finding the books
Both titles can be expensive because they were illustrated by Lionel Edwards, but reasonably priced copies do still come on to the market.
Bibliography (pony books only)
BACK TO THE HILLS
Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1940, illus Lionel Edwards
A collection of stories, this is about the same characters as Back to the Hills.
“One of the stories relates a true incident of the hard winter of 1939-40, and all show the high spirits, true understanding of horsemanship and witty insight into characters which mark the earlier book.”
For reasons of copyright, I do not show illustrations by Lionel Edwards.
RIDERS OF THE HILLS
Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1939, illus Lionel Edwards
“Riders of the Hills deals with the adventures of a group of children who belong to a West of England pony club. There are all sorts of children, a couple of boys in the dreamy adolescent stage: the poor little rich girl who has to eat her lunch in the car with a plate and a fork, instead of on the grass out of a paper bag: the hard-riding Irish family trying to make both ends meet, the farmer’s son who likes to put on airs : and there are all sorts of adventures – riding in shows, running away to London to go on the stage, circumventing unpopular neighbours,
and all the usual (and some unusual) adventures of country life.
For reasons of copyright, I do not show illustrations by Lionel Edwards.