About
Michael Lyne was born in 1912 in Herefordshire, and was educated at Rossall School, taking some lessons at the Cheltenham School of Art. By the age of four he had already dictated and illustrated two small books, and once he saw his first hunt at the age of six, he was hooked on the horse. His first book Horses, Hounds and Country was produced when he was 26. His next book alas was destroyed in a bombing raid on London during World War II before it could be distributed. Whether the book ever saw the light of day again, I do not know.
Lyne served with the Royal Armoured Corps during the war, and after the war’s end, painted full time. He illustrated many hunting and equestrian titles, and died in 1989.
Michael Lyne was not the most prolific of pony book illustrators. He illustrated just seven titles that I have been able to find, and all of them are illustrated below. The book I remember most vividly is Riding for Children (which was a non fiction Picture Puffin written by Henry Wynmalen). This featured Silver, a child’s pony, and was intended to teach a child to ride. The beautiful Silver, and his dappled sunlight world, was everything I thought a pony should be, and I spent hours imagining I was the child riding Silver, who I have to say was considerably better behaved than any of the ponies I met in my childhood riding career.
Finding the books
Michael Lyne seems to have had a genius for illustrating the more unattainable pony authors. Easter, Blue Rosette, The Horsemasters and Royal Crusader are difficult to find, and tend to be expensive. The Treasury of Horse Stories (both volumes) are the only ones which are easy to find, and cheap. Riding For Children and Keep a Silver Dollar will cost a bit more, but are not impossible. Michael Lyne’s own Horses, Hounds and Country, Parson’s Son and Sketchbook are expensive, as is the biography by John Yeates.
Links and sources
John Yeates: Michael Lynes, Sporting Artist (Sportsman’s Press, 1992)
Michael Lyne: Parson’s Son, Sporting Artist (J A Allen 1974. Limited edition of 750)
Cross Gate Gallery, Lexington, Kentucky (link no longer works)
Bibliography
PONY BOOKS ILLUSTRATED BY MICHAEL LYNE
Glenda Spooner: Royal Crusader
Latimer House, 1948
Pamela Macgregor Morris: Blue Rosette
Witherby, 1950
A Treasury of Horse Stories
[Ed Margaret Cabell Self]
Hutchinson, London, 1953
A Second Treasury of Horse Stories
[Ed Margaret Cabell Self]
Hutchinson, London, 1954
Don Stanford: The Horsemasters
Harrap, 1958
H M Peel: Easter the Show Jumper
Harrap, 1965
Marjorie Reynolds: Keep a Silver Dollar
Hamish Hamilton, 1967
Written and illustrated by Michael Lyne
Horses, Hounds and Country
Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1938
From Litter to Later On
Standfast Press, 1973
The Michael Lyne Sketchbook
Standfast, 1979, 550 limited copies, 50 bound in leather
Parson’s Son, Sporting Artist
J A Allen, 1974
EQUESTRIAN AND OTHER BOOKS illustrated BY MICHAEL LYNE
Henry Baron: Martin Claims Damages, A Sporting Romance
Country Life, 1937
Stanislaus Lynch: Rhymes of an Irish Huntsman
Country Life, 1937
Sidney Goldschmidt: Skilled Horsemanship
Country Life, 1937
Frances Pitt: Horses, Hounds and Hunting
Country Life, 1948
Henry Wynmalen and Michael Lyne: Riding for Children
Picture Puffin, 1949
George Thomas Charles: Gentleman Charles
Vinton, 1951
Robert Alcorn: Riding High
Hurst & Blackett 1953
Henry Wynmalen in co-operation with Michael Lyne: The Horse in Action
Burke, 1954
Cyril Heber Percy: Hym, the life of a Famous Fox
Faber & Faber, 1959
Cyril Heber Percy – While Others Sleep
Faber, 1962
Cyril Heber Percy: Us Four
Faber, 1963
Jill Fairhurst: Vickey
Faber, 1964
Summerhays & Walker: The Controversial Horse
J A Allen, 1966
A Review of Coursing: Stable & Stud
British Field Sports Society, 1971
Daphne Moore: In Nimrod’s Footsteps
J A Allen, 1974
Dorian Williams: Lost
Standfast, 1974
Stella Walker: Enamoured of an Ass: A Donkey Anthology
Angus & Robertson, 1977
Tim Bishop: Horses, Hounds and the Odd Stag
Standfast Press, 1979
Stuart Newsham: The Hunting Diaries of Stanley Barker
Standfast Press, 1982