In 2006 Germany experienced World Cup fever. Berlin was hosting the football championships and every cafe, bar and restaurant showed the matches on giant TV screens. Round about that time, in a city already full of street art, the work of a new artist caught my eye. They were stencilling hoofprints onto the pavements. I …
Category Archives: If Wishes Were Horses
The Language of Riding: A piece for the New York Times’ Menagerie Blog
Sasa’s name means “so-so” in Portuguese. It’s a little joke, because the gray lusitano gelding is anything but — he’s a beautiful horse who can, like many Iberian equines, claim descent from the war horses of the Renaissance. Look at Uccello’s “Battle of San Romano” and there’s Sasa’s likeness carrying a Florentine general: compact as …
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Loved by Jilly Cooper, K M Peyton and Melanie Reid – and currently just 99p for a Kindle edition
Yep, Amazon have put If Wishes Were Horses on special offer. I have no idea for how long, but here it is if you fancy snapping up a virtual copy. If you are interested in horses and history – and especially women’s history – I think you’ll find something to enjoy, as well as a …
Christmas Confessions of the Ponymad but Ponyless
Hurrah to these four, who spared the time in the run up to holiday madness to take the tardis back to childhood and remember pony mania. I wish you horses under your Christmas tree and subscriptions to Horse and Hound all round. You endured not only ponylessness but even broken bones, parental bafflement and life-limiting …
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Christmas Confessions Competition: What Did You Do When You Were Pony-mad But Ponyless?
Are you an adult recovering from a deprived, pony-mad but ponyless childhood? Did you always enter Win a Pony competitions and somehow never win even though you spent weeks swotting for the quiz answers? Does it still rankle? Did you gallop around the garden jumping over fences made from bamboo canes and flowerpots? Or eat …
Looking For Stories About Women and Horses in the Nineteenth Century?
Here’s a selection from the archives – a little bit of everything from balloonists to tragic heroines, scandalous females and zebras ridden sidesaddle. I also wrote in detail about women and girls who rode in Britain and Ireland in If Wishes Were Horses: A Memoir of Equine Obsession. A risqué (and very popular) stage hit …
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Shout Out to Ullapool Bookshop
If Wishes Were Horses’ number one saleswoman – my mum – is in Ullapool making sure the local independent is stocking copies (well, actually she’s there to watch my dad in the St Ayles Skiff World Championships but never let it be said that she can’t multi-task when family interests are concerned). As you can …
Sunday Telegraph Paperback Pick
Book of the Month in Horse Magazine
Something For Your Bookclub?
“Fantastic” – Jilly Cooper. “I adored this book” – K M Peyton. “***** Beautiful” – the Telegraph. “Richly evocative” – the Guardian. “Delicious” – The Times. “Delightful and exhaustively researched” – TLS. “Fascinating, beautifully written social history” – Readers Digest. “Made me weep” – the Independent. “Captivating. A must read” – Daily Mail. “Lyrical … The …