About the author
Mary Gervaise (1906–98) was one of the pseudonyms used by Joan Mary Wayne Brown. She was born on 21 April 1906, the daughter of an accountant and a Newnham classics graduate. She went to boarding school herself at the age of 12 in Broadstairs, although this was short lived. After she got into deep trouble for bringing The Adventures of Sherlock Homes to school, she was taken away and sent to Eversfield School in Sutton, in Surrey, where her family lived.
The family moved to Exeter when Joan was 18. At that age, she developed anaemia and instead of going to college, started to write. The family moved back to Surrey, settling in Guildford, where she lived until she died on 26 April 1998. She was a prolific writer, writing 66 books as Mary Gervaise (she also wrote adult novels under the names Hilary Wayne and Bellamy Brown). The vast majority are school stories, which she wrote almost exclusively for a twenty-year-period from her first novel in 1928, Tiger’s First Term. When the school story started to decline in popularity after World War II, Mary Gervaise and her publishers decided that pony stories were the next big thing. Mary Gervaise had some experience with horses. During World War II, she worked at a local hospital in the first aid post, and a nursing friend there had a stable at Guildford, providing Gervaise with at least some idea of the world of the pony, and so the G for Georgia series was born, neatly combining two styles of genre fiction.
Most pony stories took place firmly after school or during the holidays, ponies and school generally not mixing, but at Mary Gervaise’s Grange School, ponies were central. Indeed, this provides much of the tension in the first book, A Pony of Your Own. Its heroine, Georgia, is terrified of horses, and horrified by the prospect of going to a boarding school where all the other pupils are horse mad and the school has its own stables. However, in true school (and pony) story tradition, Georgia overcomes her fears (which was just as well as it would have been tricky to have sustained a long pony book series where the heroine was too scared to go near a pony). Although Georgia remains fearful, she forms a strong relationship with her pony Spot, and with a group of girls at the school.
Mary Gervaise was not in the first rank of either school or pony authors. Sue Sims and Hilary Clare said: ‘She is not an exceptionally good writer, but she is a competent plotter, [and] draws character and relationships quite well …’
Finding the books
The Georgia series is very easy to find in its paperback printings. Hardbacks are reasonably easy to find, and not generally expensive. The Belinda and Farthingale series can be a little more expensive, but the titles still easy to find and reasonably priced.
Links and sources
Hilary Clare and Sue Sims: The Encyclopaedia of Girls’ School Stories, Ashgate 2000
Thank you to Dawn Harrison, Ken Davies and Amanda Dolby for all their help.
Series
Georgia
A Pony of Your Own
Ponies and Holidays
Ponies in Clover
Ponies and Mysteries
A Pony from the Farm
The Pony Clue
Pony Island
The Vanishing Pony
Puzzle of Ponies
The Secret of Pony Pass
Belinda
A Pony for Belinda
Belinda Rides to School
Belinda’s Other Pony
Belinda Wins Her Spurs
Farthingale
Fireworks at Farthingale
The Farthingale Fete
The Farthingale Feud
The Farthingale Find
Bibliography
The Twins in the Third
Frederick Warne Ltd, London, 1932, illus G Ernest Lang
More on the book here
Twins Jean and Laurie are living with their grandmother. Grandmother lives in the past, and this causes problems for her grand daughters. They have joined the High School, and their form is collecting money to fund a cot at the local hospital. Jean and Laurie haven’t contributed, because their grandmother doesn’t believe in pocket money. They’re too proud, and too fond of their grandmother, to tell their form this, but they desperately want to contribute. So, they decide to sell their watches, but on the way, meet a man mistreating a pony….
The Dauntless Clan
Frederick Warne Ltd, London, 1938, 288 pp.
“Maggie and her sister and brothers were a united lot, and they had gathered around them a remarkable collection of pets.“
The Rainbow Comes
Frederick Warne Ltd, London, 1944, 240 pp.
Reprinted 1948
Not really a pony book: despite the cover, the pony content is fairly minimal! Mulberry Starr lives in Australia and rescues Charles in the Australian Desert. She is invited to come and live in England, and stays with her Aunt Penelope and Charles’ cousin Adrian. She discovers Charles’ secret and a romance ensues. Although Mulberry Starr goes to work in a stable and competes in a gymkhana during her stay in England, the descriptions are kept to a bare minimum, and most of the book is about her stay in Devonshire.
A Pony of Your Own
Lutterworth, 1950, 176 pp, illus E Herbert Whydale
Armada, pb, 125 pp, 1969, 1973
Georgia is terrified of horses (and many other things as well). Then she goes away to school, but Grange School has ponies and riding on the curriculum. Georgia is given a dashing steed which turns out to be a donkey, But Georgia does manage to overcome her fears.
Ponies and Holidays
Lutterworth, 1950, 160 pp, illus E Herbert Whydale
Armada, pb, 128pp, 1970, 1974
Patience is an old fashioned girl who starts at Grange School. She becomes friends with Georgia and Susan, and comes home for the holidays with them. Then Georgia’s cat, King Toby, disappears, and they find Patience acting very oddly indeed.
Ponies in Clover
Lutterworth, 1952, 160 pp, illus E Herbert Whydale
Armada, pb, 1968, 1974
Georgia and Susan are talking about their school on the way back on the train, and find someone is taking notes on what they say. He is Mr Hendrick, the uncle of two girls at the school. He disapproves of riding at schools, and is determined to prove that it is a waste of time.
Ponies and Mysteries
Lutterworth, 1953, 166pp, illus Bowe
Armada, pb, 126 pp, 1972
The T’ung horse goes missing, and the girls think Patience’s brother Rollo might be involved. They all go to stay at Whitelea, Patience’s home, where she is finding it difficult to fit in after her sheltered life with Gandy.
Pony from the Farm
Lutterworth, 1954, illus Bowe
Armada, pb, 127 pp, 1968, 1973
Susan and Ermyntrude have come home for the holidays with Georgia, and they are all determined to help Mrs Kane with herbazaar. Ermyntrude organises a trick ride with Susan, but there is a tragedy.
Fireworks at Farthingale
Nelson, London, 1954, 216pp, illus Robert Hodgson
Nelson, London, 1957,
Terry is not as confident on horses as she wants to be, so she shows off, and the results are disastrous. The whole second half of the term at Farthingale is not going well, though: Spooky has second sight, and the one bright spot on the horizon seems to be finding the headmistress’s ne’er do well lost brother.
The Farthingale Fete
Nelson, London, 1955, 209 pp, illus A H Watson
It looked as if there was a hoodoo on the Farthingale Fete which Terry was organising, as every little thing about it seemed to go wrong.
The Pony Clue
Lutterworth, London, 149 pp, 1955, illus Bowe
Armada, pb, 1970, 1974
There is a mystery surrounding the school: Miss Primrose’s niece, Valerie, has joined the school. Then Miss Primrose disappears, Valerie’s mother appears, and life at school gets very nasty indeed.
The Farthingale Feud
Nelson, London, 1957, 211pp, illus A H Watson
Nelson, London, 1961, 211pp, illus A H Watson
There is a feud in the school, and Terry and Rosebud find themselves on different sides.
Pony Island
Lutterworth, London, 1957, 155pp, illus John Raynes
Armada, pb, 127 pp, 1970, 1974
Susan and Georgia are on holiday, and go and stay on an island with Gerry and Rough and Tough. However, they soon get marooned on the island.
The Vanishing Pony
Lutterworth, 1958, 150pp, illus John Raynes
Armada, pb, 124pp, 1973
A pony disappears, and then Spot, Pudding and Withershins disappear…
A Pony for Belinda
Lutterworth Press, London, 159 pp, 1959, illus Raynes
Belinda doesn’t fit in: she lives with her grandmother, and is dressed in the clothes of a bygone age. Then her family ask for her to go back to them, and she doesn’t fit in there either. The Gordon family are very short of money, and plan to open a riding school, but the owner of a local kennels, Mr Barrington, decides to prevent them by renting the field they want.
Belinda Rides to School
Lutterworth Press, London, 1960, 156 pp.
Belinda learns to ride her pony Zephyr, and goes to school, where she is mistaken for the school ghost.
Belinda’s Other Pony
Lutterworth Press, London, 1961, 160 pp, illus Raynes
At last, it looks as if Janice Gordon’s riding school is on the way, and the family have a picnic to celebrate. Yet again, things go wrong, and it looks as if the stable will never open. Belinda helps out, and ends up riding in the local show on Zephyr, with another pony too.
The Farthingale Find
Nelson, London, 1961, 207 pp, illus A H Watson, 207 pp.
Terry and her friend Sibyl are out shopping in the school holidays when they are accosted by a young girl, Fanny, who tells them something is buried on the top of the rocks near Farthingale. When they get back to school, there is a new headmistress, who soon bans riding, a suspicious couple have moved near to the school, and new girl Sally turns out to be a cousin of Fanny’s. Mysteries abound…
Belinda Wins her Spurs
Lutterworth Press, London, 1962, 144pp, illus Raynes
Belinda is getting on well with her two ponies, and her sister Jan’s riding school is going well, until a rival riding school starts stealing her pupils. Then a saddle is stolen, and floods come, but it is Belindawho at the end manages to end the feud between the two riding schools.
Puzzle of Ponies
Lutterworth, London, 1964, 141pp, illus John Raynes
Armada, pb, 124 pp, 1974
Susan is taken ill at the show: she’s riding Spot, who’s going well, but then suddenly Susan stops, and slowly slides off Spot…
The Secret of Pony Pass
Lutterworth, London, 1965,144 pp, illus John Raynes
Armada, pb, 126 pp, 1974
Georgia and co are on holiday in Wales at the Gwynt Riding School, which they think is
going to be wonderful. When they turn up, however, they are amazed to find there’s no one there, and no ponies either. They can’t understand this, as Georgia’s penfriend, Lucille, is supposed to live there.
