About the author
Anne Digby is best known for her Trebizon school stories, featuring the tennis-playing Rebecca, and her Me, Jill Robinson series. She has, however, written two pony stories, The Quicksilver Horse and A Horse Called September. A Horse Called September is an excellent portrayal of the tensions caused by peer pressure. The Quicksilver Horse is completely different in tone, being set in a circus.
Anne Digby was born in Kingston-upon-Thames, and went to the North London Collegiate School. She created comic strips and short stories for Girl and School Friend papers, and then became a press officer for Oxfam. However, she wanted to write full time, and after her first book, A Horse Called September, was published, and was well received, she started the Trebizon series. The later, and more difficult to find, of the series, have been republished by Fidra Books.
Anne Digby’s husband has also written a pony book (Queen Rider) under the name A D Langholm (later reprinted under the name Alan Davidson).
Many thanks to Hannah Fleetwood for the pictures.
Finding the books
The Denis Dobson first edition of A Horse Called September can be very expensive indeed, but it’s not impossible to track down more reasonably priced copies. Beware of booksellers claiming the Granada hardback is the first edition: it isn’t. The paperbacks are reasonably easy to source too, and shouldn’t be too expensive. The Quicksilver Horse is reasonably easy to find, and shouldn’t be too expensive as a hardback first edition. Paperbacks are cheap. Both books are now available as eBooks.
Sources
Fidra Book’s autobiographical information on Anne Digby.
Bibliography
A Horse Called September
Dennis Dobson, 1976
Reprinted Dragon, pb, 1978, cover
Susan Hunter, 127 pp.
US, 1982
Granada, hb, 1985
Mary and Anna were inseperable, even sharing Anna’s horse September, until Anna’s father sent her away to school at Kilmingdean
School, an expensive, snobbish establishment that specialised in turning out show jumping champions.
It changed everything between Mary and Anna. Anna promised to write, but her letters soon stopped. Mary was left behind, employed now by Anna’s father to look after September: to look after, but on no account to ride him. Mr Dewar did that, and Mary was forced to watch as Mr Dewar crippled September through over work, and she could do nothing. When it finally seemed as if Mary would loose both Anna and September, she embarked upon a daring scheme to rescue September and win back the respect and friendship of Anna and her father.
The Quicksilver Horse
Granada, 1979
St Martin’s Press, New York, 1979, 94 pp.
Reprinted Dragon, 1981, pb, 94 pp, cover Julie Smith
“Emma Kenner was given Silver for her seventh birthday. Harry Hume, a racing stable owner, didn’t think Silver could make it as a
racehorse, so he sold her to Mr. Kenner. The Kenners watched the mare grow up and flourish as they trained her. Emma and Silver
became the stars of Mr. Kenner’s travelling circus. When the circus is ravaged by a storm, Harry Hume constructs a spectacular plan for Silver. Emma fears the outcome of the plan and also fears her friendship with Roddy will not survive the crisis.”
