About the author
D Glyn-Forest was a pseudonym used by Daisy Elfreda Lynes, about whom I can find no biographical information at all. She wrote two pony books, Gipsy’s Way and Elmwood Hall. Martello Tower, which she wrote in 1949, is a book of two halves: it starts as an adventure story, and towards the end has a definite pony club element. D Glyn-Forest was a regular contributor of short stories to Riding Magazine, published by Country Life, in the 1930s, and had a two-part story published in the 1953 Percy’s Pony Annual: Seeing is Believing. I have not been able to find anything she wrote after 1956.
Her full length novel, Gipsy’s Way, goes very much against type by having a misunderstood gipsy hero who may (or may not) have stolen a pony. The author neatly plays with the preconceptions people make, but this isn’t a simple moralistic tale: Deva the gipsy is released from prison at the end, but there is the possibility that this was only because of a theft committed elsewhere.
Finding the books
None of her titles are impossible to find: Gipsy’s Way and Martello Tower are easy to find and not generally expensive. Elmwood Hall is pricier and not quite so easy, but not impossible.
Links and sources
Many thanks to Mr P Scott for the information on Martello Tower.
Bibliography
Gipsy’s Way
A & C Black, London, 1939, 216 pp. Illus Cecil G Trew
Felicity has a grey Welsh Mountain pony, Topsy. Deva, a gipsy boy, rescues Topsy when her field floods, and Felicity wants to reward him and get to know him better. Deva however was intending to steal Topsy, so doesn’t think he deserves any reward. Time passes: Felicity and her cousin Raymond ride in a pageant, and then they meet Deva and his family and buy a skewbald from them. Deva, it appears, is caught red-handed trying to steal the pony (Gipsy) back, and is to be sent to a remand home. Felicity decides she must bail him out of the home
by selling Gipsy.
Martello Tower
Frederick Warne, London, 1949, 253 pp.
A story in two halves, the first being a conventional adventure story, and the second introducing elements of Pony Club.
Elmwood hall
E O Beck, London, 1956, 206 pp. Illus Cavesson
“Terence and Bridget love riding, but have only one pony between them. Then a new riding school opens and they have many adventures gathering together a string of ponies and children to start off the school.
One of the ponies is circus trained, and two of the children are wonderful acrobats which helps them all put on a circus to raise funds.
SHORT STORIES
During wartime, and until rationing ended, magazines no longer appeared as monthly issues. Riding Magazine used various methods of dating magazines; hence “Spring” and “March-
The Red Ribbon
Riding Magazine, March 1937
More About Merrylegs in Wartime
Riding Magazine, Spring 1942, illus Cavesson
Odd Couple
Riding Magazine, July-August 1947, illus Cavesson
Susan to the Rescue
Riding Magazine, March-April 1948, illus Cavesson
Merrylegs and the Moose
Riding Magazine, May/June, 1949, illus Cavesson
Bunty and Angus
Pony Magazine, serial (August 1952 – January 1953?), illus Cavesson
Strange Welcome
Riding Magazine, December 1951
Seeing is Believing
Percy’s Pony Annual, 1953, illus Cavesson
Top Speed
Riding Magazine, May 1953, illus Cavesson