About the author
Fiona Walker (1969 -) narrowly escaped being called Mopsa, after a shepherdess in Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale. An early rider and Pony Club attendee, she said: ‘From the moment I spotted a fat Thelwell pony through a gateway and screamed “yes please, please, please!” I lived to ride. Throughout early childhood, I thought true love was four-legged.’ She moved on from Jill to Jilly Cooper, read Theatre Studies at university, started working in advertising, and then began to write. With eight novels now behind her, she lives with her partner Sam, a dressage coach, in Somerset and together they run Dovecote Stables.
Several of her books are set in the horse world, including the only one I’ve read: Well Groomed. It’s an eventing story, and is a fun read, though the characters vacillate maybe a bit long for comfort.
Finding the books
Easy. All are still in print.
Sources and links
Fiona Walker’s website
Bibliography (horse books only)
French Relations
Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1995
Tash isn’t at all keen on the idea of a family holiday in France – months in some crumbling chateau. But what she gets is “a summer of lust, bed-hopping, unresolved sexual tension, horses, dogs, bolshy kids and lots of bad behaviour. And in the midst of bedlam, at least two people fall in love …”
Well Groomed
Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1996,
Coronet, London, 1997, pb, 698 pp.
A Jilly Cooper-esque romance set in the eventing world. Tash is going to marry Niall, her actor fiancé. This is fine, because she is not still in love with eventing legend Hugo. Niall isn’t in love with anyone else either. Of course not. Everything’s going to work out just fine.
Tongue in Cheek
Hodder & Stoughton, London, 2006,
Teacher Mo Stillitoe, socialite Diana Lampeter and retired dressage diva Anke Brakespear all move to the Oddlode Valley. It’s a fraught move for them all, with furniture, and horses, delivered to the wrong houses.
Kiss and Tell
Sphere, London, 2011
Rory Midwinter is very at home in the eventing world, where “flirtation is compulsory sport; love is a professional hazard.” Tash and Hugo Beauchamp – golden couple of British eventing – face a challenge with the arrival of difficult Kiwi rider, Lough Strachan. Lough holds the key to Hugo’s darkest secret, and he intends to use it to access his greatest rival’s beautiful wife.
Country Escape
Sphere, London, 2014
Eardisford has just been sold for the first time in its history. Kat Mason has been left the estate’s lakeside sanctuary, Lake Farm, until she dies or marries. But the new owners want her out now . . . Charming playboy Dougie Everett is the man hired to sweep Kat off her feet and off the property.
