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More biographical information from Hilary Clare; plot summaries and more from a site specialising in pony books.
Jill has nothing to do, as school hasn't started, but there is a pony down the road, and Jill makes friends with him. Jill might not have ever actually handled a pony before, but of course she knows absolutely everything about them, and assumes that the reader must be the same, and is totally familiar with all sorts of titles like 'M. Missing five-line paragraph how when Ann arrives she has one of her little sisters with her, riding a new tricycle. Such a fascinating revisit of my childhood favourite - I still love her, and my memories of spending time with Jill are literally the way most people think of their childhood friends, I can't emphasise enough that Jill WAS my childhood friend - but she can be so truly awful. It’s a must read for anyone who loves ponies and although some of it is quite dated it still resonates with any child who dreams of owning their own pony.The Hampton printing has an addition to the original text on page 38 (both versions): to ‘You see, for ages I haven’t been any use at all, since I couldn’t walk, and it was getting me down. Missing an eight-line paragraph where Jill reflects on her upcoming visit to Cecilia’s suggesting she will be ‘at her mercy’; how Aunt Primrose treats Jill like a child and how she doesn’t like her Uncle Henry (her mother’s brother) much. This makes Ferguson's writing outstanding not only in the pony stories genre, but in children's literature generally. The protagonist is enjoyable, and like all good pony books, she faces interesting horse-y challenges along the way.
Written in 1949, read by me around 1972 and rediscovered thanks to Lucy Mangan’s wonderful Bookworm. Missing two paragraphs (20 lines) describing Ann having lunch at Jill’s, what the girls wear, make up and nail varnish, and Mrs Derry arriving with Ann’s sisters to collect Mrs Crewe. The cover may have some limited signs of wear but the pages are clean, intact and the spine remains undamaged. The morals of all the short vignettes in the book were all about how being polite and nice is better behaviour than being sensible.The plot is that Jill wants a pony, because Jill is an 11-year-old girl, and Jill gets a pony, because Jill is an incredibly lucky 11-year-old girl. These books are extremely well written, amusing and sometimes slightly tongue in cheek, especially when a terribly grown up 12 year old Jill refers to someone as "being in her 40's but not too old to enjoy herself"! Anyway my mum had many of these books when she was a kid, and I read them over and over in my teens. Ferguson's series is (I am told) a solid central example of the genre, so I won't be going far wrong. For our most recent podcast episode, I made Dave read Jill's Gymkhana by Ruby Ferguson, a book from 1949 about a young girl named Jill who comes by a pony, learns to ride and dreams of entering a gymkhana.
The people and the ponies are skillfully drawn, and various riding (and other) adventures keep the pace bowling along. Second paragraph has been abridged omitting Jill ‘trying to look intelligent’ and being embarrassed about her mother telling Martin about her book, the hen house and the scullery floor. Jill learns to ride because she runs into a wheelchaired guy at a gymkhana who just straight offers to teach her, and I am about 90% confident that he was putting the moves on her mother, who starts getting really bent out of shape about obligations to the guy, which of course Jill just ignores.Missing last two paragraphs (nine lines) describing Jill’s enthusiasm for gymkhanas, telling her Mother about Martin and disappointment he had not come to Pool Cottage. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. citation needed] In contrast, Ferguson's Jill is an active, independent and witty character who defies post-war expectations for English girls by scorning ladylike pursuits, treating boys her own age as equals, and working hard to achieve her goals.
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