Easton, A M

About the author

A M Easton is one of those authors who’s extremely hard to track down. As far as I know, Easton wrote just the one book, The Bargain Pony. This is set in colonial India, though switches the action between the Indians and the British.

At first I thought this was going to be another I-remember-the-day-I-was-born type story, because that’s pretty much how it starts off, though the story is told in the third person, not first. And the poor foal grows up, and has a fairly grim time until he is bought by a British family, for the story is set in colonial India. Our heroine Nancy Marshall is convinced she can get the pony – who is called Shaitan (Satan) round. And the pony is frankly, in a pretty grim mental state, having been subjected to having a string tied round his tongue to quieten him.

He is vicious, alarmingly so, and we do see the groom Naran and Nancy working on him. The pony turns out to be a mightily effective polo pony, and at that point I thought the book was going to end in a fairly conventional glorious ending. Well, I was wrong. It then seems to morph into an adventure story. Sarat, the person who mistreated Shaitan, has escaped from prison, and is determined to wreak revenge on the stern British judge who sent him there.

The rest of the book switches focus to the poor soul who rather against his will helped Sarat escape, and has bitterly regretted it ever since. Nancy and the pony do play a part in the resolution of the story, but the focus is firmly on that, and on preventing Sarat’s dastardly plans.

This does mean that Shaitan’s further rehabilitation is somewhat brushed over – I had the impression the author had lost interest in it, only to remember this particular plotline needed tying up and in effect well, the pony’s fine now, of course.

Throughout the book, Nancy has been threatened with being sent back to England if she doesn’t behave, and so overcome is her mother by the general shenanigans with which Nancy and Shaitan help to bring about (spoiler alert) Sarat’s downfall that she announces that is exactly what is to happen. After one last amazing race together, off Nancy goes to England, leaving Shaitan to be the best polo pony in India.

The Bargain Pony is a pacy read, and a good adventure story, though I’m still not sure what sort of book the author meant to write. I was left with the feeling he (or she) far more enjoyed the adventure than the pony rehabilitation.

I have never seen a copy with a dustjacket and have no idea what it’s like.

Finding the book
Bargain Pony isn’t particularly hard to find, though I’ve never yet seen one with a dustjacket.