The Follyfoot Collection

Follyfoot #2-5

by Monica Dickens

Contents:
Follyfoot --
Dora at Follyfoot --
The horses of Follyfoot --
Stranger at Follyfoot.

Genres: Horses

556 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

From the publisher: MONICA DICKENS, born in 1915, was brought up in London and was the great-granddaughter of Charles Dickens. Her mother's German origins and her Catholicism gave her the detached eye of an outsider; at St Paul's Girls' School she was under occupied and rebellious. After drama school she was a debutante before working as a cook. One Pair of Hands (1939), her first book, described life in the kitchens of Kensington. It was the first of a group of semi autobiographies of which Mariana (1940), technically a novel, was one. 'My aim is to entertain rather than instruct,' she wrote. 'I want readers to recognise life in my books.' In 1951 Monica Dickens married a US naval officer, Roy Stratton, moved to America and adopted two daughters. An extremely popular writer, she involved herself in, and wrote about, good causes such as the Samaritans. After her husband died she lived in a cottage in rural Berkshire, dying there in 1992.
http://www.persephonebooks.co.uk/page...

Reviews

[Daisy May Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The horsey phase is, I think, a phase that so many people go through in their life. It is a phase that I went through and that a part of me remains lost in, despite not being near a horse for too long. I will be eternally addicted to the rhythm of tack-cleaning, the thick, satsified exhaustion of a day in the saddle and the moment when the two of you, a horse and a rider, become one and somehow in that oneness become more than you ever thought you could be.

I first made my acquaintance with Follyfoot back in the 90s where, surrounded by shellsuits and dodgy hairdos, I fell in love. I fell in love with a lot of equine literature at that point and there are loves that have endured: Ruth Hollis; (Oh how I still love you KM Peyton); and Follyfoot too, has endured. This bound copy of four stories is held together by tape and the pages are ripped, and it will endure, I think, for some time yet.

The stories in this compilation are all available individually: Follyfoot, Dora at Follyfoot, The Horses of Follyfoot and Stranger at Follyfoot. There is another book in the series not included in this volume: Cobbler's Dream. All of the titles pop up fairly regularly in my experience in second hand book shops and, depending on the edition, they're also available very cheaply online.

The Follyfoot books are deliciously good. Reading this compilation of the four stories, reading them all together in one heady rush of horses and common sense and sunlit holidays, is something akin to an almost spiritual experience. Let me clarify that for a second: there is something so complex about us when we talk about children and their loves, we mock them, so easily, for overtly investing emotionally in bands, or films, or celebrities. Horse books are that feverish space of investment for so many individuals; that first, wild realisation of a space in the world that can fit to the shape of you. Horses are a first love, they are empathy and hope and love made flesh, and horse stories - the good ones, the too-sharp oness - they catch that. They know that.

Follyfoot Farm is a farm for horses on the edge of society; abandoned and neglected and too old for people to cope with any more. It is a space where the scraps of the world find their whole. Steve, Dora, Callie, Slugger, Anna, The Colonel, Ron. All of them complex, fascinating characters written in such simple, direct style that somehow it masks the worlds underneath their souls. A simple book, I think, is not one that lacks complexities. Dickens' prose is so bluntly lovely. Lines sink into me: "the midge-misted evening" and others make me fall in love with Dickens' painterly skill: "Outside, a touch of night frost had left the lawn sparkling with a thousand crystals. Perfect day to ride. She began to invent possible excuses for not going to school."

I love this series. I love what it means to me, the way it captures a part of me every time, but I love how serious it is, how respectful it is of the topic. Horses die, people die but the world keeps turning, and the sun keeps rising above the eternal symbol of hope that is Follyfoot. All of that, all of that, in these pages that talk about broken stirrup leathers and donkey's and foals. But that's the thing, I think, about the good horse story. It gets, somehow, that it's not actually about the horses at all.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having recently re-watched the DVDs of Follyfoot and found the programme to be more like current adult/family drama than a kid's programme, I decided to read all the associated books. The first one, Cobbler's Dream, I really enjoyed as it was far more complex than I anticipated - very much like the programme. This edition is an omnibus, comprising the following two books, Follyfoot and Dora at Follyfoot. Cobbler's Dream was written before the programme began, whereas Follyfoot must have been written alongside the screenplays for the TV programme and Dora at Follyfoot after the success of the programme. These two books suffer from the fact that clearly they were written specifically aimed at children, following the popularity of the TV series. The language is much simpler and instead of having one narrative, which follows throughout the book, they are more episodic, just like the series. They concentrate on the story of saving this horse, or that horse, rather than the lives of the characters. I still enjoyed them but, whereas I didn't feel peculiar as a 47-year-old reading Cobbler's Dream, it felt a bit pathetic reading these. What WAS interesting was seeing how Monica Dickens adapted the story from Cobbler's Dream, where there are far more characters, (a boy called Paul, rather than Steve, Slugger has a wife, etc.) over the course of the two following books, until the character cast more or less resembles that of the TV series; (Slugger's wife mysteriously disappears from the narrative over the course of the two books and he ends up in charge of the cooking and Ron Striker, who was fired in the first book is re-emplyed by the end of the third.) Although I enjoyed it, overall it was disappointing after the first book and the TV series is still a much better watch than the accompanying books are a read!

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought people can be cruel but what happened to some of these horses is disgraceful, well written
Very interesting book, sad that horses can be abandoned especially in old age, one turned out unable to understand why he was locked out of his stable & left to wander, knocked down by car, 2 legs broken so put down just because owner going abroad & couldn't find a home for him. Pity he didn't try harder or stay here. I really felt for this poor old guy, the horse I mean, & many others the rescue centre took in.
Emotional story in many ways with a good ending.

[S Brunning · Rating 5 out of 5]

TOP NOTCH STORYTELLING. Even if this is such an old book it is still absolutely fantastic. They don't write stories like these anymore and I completely loved them. Can't recommend these enough for all ages.
Lots of people would think they are too boring but it is just nowadays we have a super short attention span and constantly need gripping action.
I loved these stories and have read all of them twice through.

[tee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really didn't like horses as a kid. I also loathed stories about horses (and animals in general). Unfortunately my mum was really strict with what I was allowed to read and this happened to be one of the ones she deemed as wholesome and acceptable. I remember being pretty good for a damn horse book.

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just rediscovered this series of books about the rest home for horses from my childhood. Horses in distress being rescued, horses and staff as extras in a movie, an exciting midnight ride. Horsey heaven!

[Swantje Staacke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eine Reihe die ich als Kind mehrfach gelesen habe.
Die Geschichte der Pferde die auf der Follyfoot Farm leben ist bewegend, die Protagonisten gut erzählt. Ein gutes Kinderbuch zum mitfiebern.