Ponies in the Attic by Irene Makin

Ponies in the Attic by Irene Makin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A perfect cover, this, delivered by Elisabeth Grant who understands everything, but everything, that a pony book should be and manages to capture it in that still, breathless moment between human and animal. It’s beautiful and I love it and it’s the thing that made this fall off the shelf and into my hands. I was also intrigued by the fact that this was a Kaye Webb book, as she is one of those enormous figures in post-war children’s publishing that I am trying to read more about. So, a double dip of intrigue here and one which only grew and spiralled as I read: at its best, there’s more of a hint of Philippa Pearce in this slim, soft story, that sense of adventure about to begin, and that is always worth stopping for.

I am dreamy, I think, with books like this because they always make me think of summer holidays and the way that they felt endless and never-ending because they were. Nothing mattered beyond the moment and that, I think, is what makes this slender story work. There’s just over one hundred pages here and the plot is simple if you abstract it: a girl is lonely, neglected by her family and her siblings in her new home, but then she meets a boy and a pony and learns about the history of her new home. That’s really it. But then, it’s also not.

What this is is a story of a life in transition, of figuring out who you are going to be in complicated times, and of realising that there are other things and people and places out there in the world and you are connected to it all. It is a book for reading late at night when everything suddenly becomes a potential truth and it is for the morning after to remind that these things are still possible. I don’t think it’s perfect but I find it infinitely interesting because of those hints of Pearce and even, as I write this, of KM Peyton and her eye for people and for character. With more space this might be something remarkable but even in the bare breath that it has here, it’s more than worth spending time with.

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