Black Beauty's Family

Black Beauty's Family

by Josephine Pullein-Thompson, Diana Pullein-Thompson, Christine Pullein-Thompson

Originally published in 1975 as Black Beauty's Clan. Three separate stories about Black Ebony, Black Princess and Black Velvet. For ages 8-11.

Genres: Horses

Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

The Pullein-Thompson sisters — Josephine Pullein-Thompson MBE (3 April 1924-[1]), Diana Pullein-Thompson (born 1 October 1925) [2] and Christine Pullein-Thompson (1 October 1925–2 December 2005[2] — are British writers of several horse and pony books (mostly fictional) aimed at children and mostly popular with girls. They started at a very young age (initially writing collectively) and they were at their peak in the 1950s and 1960s, but their popularity has endured. They have written a collective autobiography Fair Girls and Grey Horses.

All 3 sisters have written at least 1 book under a different name; Josephine wrote 1 under the pseudonym of Josephine Mann, Diana 3 books under her married name of Diana Farr and Christine wrote 2 books under the name of Christine Keir.

Their mother, Joanna Cannan (1898–1961), sister of the poet May Cannan, wrote similar equestrian stories, but is better known for detective mysteries.

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I of course (and naturally) did not anticipate Josephine, Diana and Christine Pullein-Thompson's Black Beauty's Family to be in any manner as engaging, as minutely descriptive and as intensely emotionally moving (as well as of course also occasionally very much disturbing) as Anna Sewell's classic Black Beauty has always been to and for me, I was still kind of expecting a generally and for the most part readable and approachable enough collection of horse stories about Black Beauty's imagined siblings, nieces and such. And in particular, I was hoping for Black Beauty's Family to shine and sparkle with a similar narrational style to Black Beauty, namely that the Pullein-Thompson siblings first person horse storytelling would be equally (or at least similarly) magical and yes indeed as evocative, as engaging as had been Anna Sewell's, where in her Black Beauty the main equine protagonist personally relates and recounts his life story naturally and without either too little or too much emotionality. However, very frustratingly and sadly, while with regard to the presented themes and events, Josephine, Diana and Christine Pullein-Thompson's Black Beauty's Family does read while perhaps not quite as developed and as nuanced as Anna Sewell's Black Beauty still with enough description and presentation of details to retain general factual interest (especially for readers who are enthusiastic about horses and also enjoy tales of wartime and adventure), the manner in which the Pullein-Thompson sisters have Black Ebony, Black Princess and Black Velvet tell us about their lives truly to and for me leaves very much to be desired. For while Black Beauty's personal narration (penned of course by Anna Sewell) always and (in my humble opinion) sounds natural and indeed that even though he is a horse, Black Beauty's method of storytelling is generally equine in nature, Black Ebony's, Black Princess' and Black Velvet's first person narrations, they to and for my eyes and ears feel not so much like horses recounting their stories but much more like humans pretending to be horses (like authors Josephine, Diana and Christine Pullein-Thompson pretending to be equines), leaving a rather distancing and distracting (even a bit disjoined at times) general narrational impression with regard to Black Beauty's Family and therefore not really all that much either a rewarding or pleasurable personal reading experience.

[Sarah TheAromaofBooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5

A fun collection of stories told by horses at various points in history. Because they are short stories, they don't have a great deal of depth, but still each is interesting in its own right.

[Kerris]

Love it! currently writing a sotry of a horse on my Wattpad account! this helped alot with ideas