About the author
Arthur Catherall (1906–80) was born in Bolton, and served in the RAF during the Second World War. He was well travelled. Besides serving in Burma and Eastern Bengal during the war, he travelled in Europe, Africa and the Far East. He was a prolific writer for children: so successful was he that his publishers, J M Dent, claimed that by 1973 they had sold over one million copies of his books. He is probably best known for his Bulldog series, set on the South China Seas, in which the crew of the tugboat Bulldog foil the evil of the criminal mastermind Karmy and his henchmen. He covered considerably more than sea stories: he wrote about scouts, wartime adventures, and animals, and wrote under several pseudonyms: A. R. Channel; Dan Corby; J. Baltimore; Linda Peters; Peter Hallard; Trevor Maine and Margaret Ruthin.
Three of his books can be considered horse books: The Last Horse on the Sands is a poignant story of the displacement of a horse by machinery, allied to a nail-biting rescue story.
Finding the books
Both the Arthur Catherall titles are relatively easy to find in all their printings. White Horse of Hungary is now trickier to find.
Links and sources
Jim Mackenzie on Arthur Catherall
Bibliography (pony books only)
As Margaret Ruthin
The White Horse of Hungary
Warne, 1954, 256 pp.
LAST HORSE ON THE SANDS
Dent, London, 1972, illus David Farris, 117 pp.
Tempo Books, New York, 1972 pb.
Lothrop, Lee and Shepard, New York, 1973, 128 pp.
Set in Morecambe Bay, where a plane crashes. The village turns out to help and try and rescue the survivors. The old horse Tom it was thought could now be replaced by a tractor, but a tractor can’t sense the shifting sands like Tom can. Paula, Simon and Tom are the only ones, in the end, who can help.
A ZEBRA CAME TO DRINK
Dent, London, 1967, illus Edward Osmond, 128 pp.
Dutton, New York, 1967, illus John Schoenherr, 128 pp.
Tells of the first week in the life of a wild zebra.