About the author
Meta Mayne Reid (1905–1990) was born in Yorkshire, but lived for much of her life in Crawfordsburn, County Down. She wrote over 20 children’s books, and set her historical novels in Ulster. Her one pony book, The Noguls and the Horse, has a graphic and realistic background, drawn from The Troubles in Ireland: one of its main characters, Clare, is traumatised when she is caught in the blast from a car bomb. Although pony books often reflect social conditions of the day, it is unusual for contemporary events to figure so dramatically.
Finding the book
Easy and cheap to find.
Sources and links
Dictionary of Ulster biography (link now dead)
The manuscript of The Noguls and the Horse is held by the University of Southern Mississippi, in the de Grummond collection
Bibliography (pony books only)
The Noguls and the Horse
Abelard Schuman, London, 1976, illus Tony Morris
Abelard Schuman, London, 1976, pb
Clare is given a kitten for her birthday, but when she is taking him in a basket to show the woman in the cakeshop, she is caught in the blast from a car bomb, and though she survives, the kitten is killed. Clare retreats into herself. She is taken to stay in the country with her cousins Tom and Sara, who form the Noguls (the NoGrown Up Leaguers). They try to save an old horse from the knacker’s yard, and the horse’s plight and their adventures together help Clare to realise there is still something in life for her.
