FIDRA BOOKS - Key Persons
Anne Digby was born in Kingston-upon-Thames and attended the North London Collegiate School before becoming a magazine journalist. Describing herself as a ‘compulsive scribbler since childhood', she enjoyed a varied early career creating comic strips and short stories for School Friend and Girl. After a period spent living in Paris, Anne and her family moved to oxford where she became Oxfam's press officer.
However, Anne longed to be a 'proper' author and although she modestly claims to have received a number of rejection slips, in 1978 A Horse Called September was published. The book was well-received and Anne turned her attention to plotting her next books.
She had been happy at her day school, but Anne had always hankered after boarding school life and so she was inspired to start creating her own boarding school. Although her agent was unenthusiastic, Anne was gripped by the idea of her school, now named Trebizon. Set in Cornwall, on the edge of a town, above a sandy bay where the girls could swim and surf, the main characters were to be Rebecca Mason and her five friends - The Six. Anne researched contemporary boarding schools, although many of the events and physical aspects of the school, such as its magnificent cedar tree came from her own schooldays.
Caroline Akrill's writing career began with articles for various publications, such as Pony Magazine. It was in Pony that her stories were published for the first time, firstly short stories and then a serial. This was published as I'd Rather Not Gallop in 1975, as the opening novel in a trilogy based on Akrill's own showing career. Following this success with another, Caroline wrote her hugely popular Eventing Trilogy. These books, along with the later Silver Bridle Trilogy, are all humorous and it is in this way that they are unusual in the world of pony books. However it is Flying Changes, Akrill's only non-humorous pony story, which is the most unusual. Originally intended as a book for adults, it is very dark, filled with hurt and tragedy - very uncommon in the world of pony books.
Caroline Akrill then spent 20 years as a publisher of horse stories, and she and her husband now run a gorgeous hotel in Conwy, North Wales.
Elinor Lyon was born in Guisborough, Yorkshire in 1921 and educated in Oxford before spending time in Switzerland and then reading English at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. After serving as a radar operator during World War II, she married Peter Wright, whom she had met whilst he was teaching Classics at Rugby School where her father was headmaster. Elinor and Peter remained in Rugby until he retired in 1975, when they moved to a cottage in the countryside near Harlech, Wales.
Elinor Lyon passed away on 28th May 2008 following a massive stroke. She was very dear to everyone at Fidra Books and shall be greatly missed.
Although Elinor wrote many books, the ones for which she is best known are those featuring Ian, Sovra and Cathie. We started with the first in the series, The House in Hiding. The books are set on the west coast of Scotland, around Arisaig and capture the essence of the area wonderfully. Although the writer has a distinctive voice of her own, the characters get into marvellous adventures in the best traditions of the genre. As Ian and Sovra say to their new friend Ann in We Daren't Go A'Hunting: "Stay with us and you won't be bored. You may be seasick or ship-wrecked or drowned or lost or burned or killed by falling over a cliff, but you won't be bored." However, adventure is only part of the story - the books also have strong themes of loyalty and friendship, without the chauvinism of some writers. The female characters such as Cathie and Sovra are seen as equal and capable rather than as ‘just girls'.
When published, Elinor's books were widely praised by reviewers although only one was ever issued in paperback and many of them are very hard to find - we are confident that the Fidra Books editions will be popular!
Jane Badger Books' website contains an excellent feature on Ruby Ferguson and her pony books.
Jill Crewe thought her dreams had come true when she got Black Boy, her beloved first pony. Then she gets the chance to buy another pony. It seems too good to be true when Jill buys Rapide, a successful show jumper. But has Jill done the right thing? Rapide likes everyone else at the stables, but he's not at all keen on her. Should she sell him? Or keep on trying, hoping she and Rapide will click? Jill can't decide...
Martin Reed goes to spend a holiday with a family in Wales as his father is ill. He does not find the family very congenial, but this does not deter Martin who quickly makes friends with some wild children called the Burnets. They have a wonderful secret which they soon disclose to Martin - the undiscovered ruins of a castle.
Primrose Cumming (1915 - 2004) was the youngest of three children and spent her life in Kent, although she travelled extensively. A writer since childhood, her first story, a tale about an ant, was published in Nursery World when she was 16 and earnt her the grand sum of 6 shillings. More stories and article followed and her first book, Doney, was published in 1934 when she was 19 and she was delighted to receive a letter praising it from Rudyard Kipling. For Doney, Primrose was paid £25 outright, £24 of which she spent on her first horse, a gelding called Black Jack.
During the Second World War Primrose left home and joined an anti-aircraft unit of the ATS and was stationed in various sites around the country. After her demob, Primrose returned to the family home and continued to write, latterly for girls' comics published by D C Thomson of Dundee when pony books waned in popularity.
A keen traveller, Primrose trekked on horseback in Spain, France, South America, the Scottish Highlands and the Hungarian Plains. She followed in the footsteps of Lawrence of Arabia by camel and took part in an elephant safari in Nepal. Her detailed travel diaries covered trips as diverse as the Arctic Circle, the English Midlands, Iceland, Tuscany, Russia and China, where, on the Great Wall, she met an old comrade from her ATS days, some 40 years earlier.
The first title to be published by fidra books will be Silver Snaffles, an elusive title although probably Primrose's best known book.
Rebecca Mason is in the 5th year at Trebizon School and working hard for her GCSEs. However, someone takes some of her revision notes and then it seems that her locker has been ransacked and her letters from her boyfriend and her French penfriend have been read - who would do such a thing?
Rebecca Mason has decisions to make; should she go for a career in tennis or stay on at Trebizon school and move into the Sixth Form with her friends? An agent has seen her play tennis on TV in the documentary that was made about Trebizon school and thinks she is the could go far in tennis. Rebecca isn't sure. And what about her boyfriend Robbie? Things aren't going so well there. Does Robbie only like Rebecca because of her tennis?
Lonely Jill Crewe makes friends with a neglected pony. She decides to buy Black Boy, but there's only one problem: she can't even unsaddle him, let alone ride him! And girls such as Susan Pyke are very scathing that she doesn't have the right riding clothes. But her friends show her the ropes, and encourage her to ride in the local gymkhana, where she has a few surprises for the unpleasant Susan Pyke...
After a disappointing start, the summer holidays improve for Jill when she is asked to help organise a gymkhana. Life gets better still when Mrs. Darcy suggests Jill ride her beautiful roan hack, Sandy-Two, at the Chatton Show. Jill assists Dinah, a strange girl who will do anything to learn to ride, by giving her old riding clothes and a ride on Black Boy. When Dinah disappears with three horses, Jill wonders exactly what she has let herself in for...
Starting a riding club seemed like a good idea at first. But then the bossy Clarissa Dandleby joins, the Intimidating Major Hooley scares off some of the members and Miss Durdon takes over as President in return for letting the club use her field. Suddenly it all seems a lot less like fun for Jill and her friends. Will champion show-jumper Captain Cholly-Sawcutt's help and the riding club's own gymkhana save the summer holidays?
Ruby Ferguson (née Ashby) was born in Reeth, West Yorkshire in 1899, as the daughter of a Wesleyan Minister. She attended Bradford Girls' Grammar School and then read English at St Hilda's College, Oxford between 1919 and 1922. After completing her MA, Ruby Ferguson moved to Manchester and started working as a secretary. Her writing was first published in the form of a regular column in British Weekly magazine, but her career really began when she entered some detective stories in a competition in the Manchester Evening News.
Her first full length novel was published in 1926, under the name R. C. Ashby, and she continued writing under this name until her marriage in 1934. It was after this that she started to write romantic novels, the most famous of which, Lady Rose and Mrs Memmary, has been reprinted by Persephone Books. The books for which Ferguson is best known are those about Jill Crewe and her ponies which she wrote for her step-grandchildren. Her final book, published in 1967, the year after her death, is titled The Children at the Shop and is a fictionalized autobiography of her childhood.
Sheila Stuart, whose real name was Mary Gladys Baker, was born in 1892 and brought up in a Manse in Johnstone in Renfrewshire where her father was a Church of Scotland minister. After school in Glasgow, Sheila Stuart later went to Leng and Co of Dundee (later incorporated into D C Thomson) where she trained as a journalist, although during World War One she worked as a VAD.
She wrote a number of short stories and serials for periodicals, such as Scottish Field and the Dundee-based People's Friend and also wrote a number of books about antiques. However, Sheila Stuart is best known for her series of books about Alison and her brother Niall, based in the north-west of Scotland where she spent a great deal of time and which she captured very realistically in the background to her stories.
Sheila Stuart died in 1974 in Crieff, Perthshire, where she had moved on her husband's retirement.