Talking of Horses

by Monica Dickens

Book by Dickens, Monica

Genres: Nonfiction, Animals

154 pages, Hardcover

First published August 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.
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Reviews

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting little book. Monica Dickens has clearly been around horses all of her life, and here she reminisces about certain horses she has owned down the years. The book is a memoir of sorts but deals only with her animals.

The writing is almost dreamlike and definitely a stream of consciousness rather than done with any true structure in mind. I'm uncertain why there were even chapters included, since there seems no logical reason why Dickens breaks off at the end of a chapter.

Her writing is competent - some of the descriptions of her horses (especially Ben) are almost poetic.

There is no easy reason to say why I love this book so, and come back to it on a regular basis. I think possibly because Dickens conveys the enormous delight in owning and being around horses?

In between anecdotal stories about past rides (my favourite being her ride with John along the beach at Cape Cod), Dickens offers little tidbits of advice about how to deal with ponies in the stable, while at riding, how to train, what equipment to use. Everything she says carries a certain gravity since it has all been learned through extensive experience.

This book is definitely only for the horse-lover! It is written for children in the main, but no reason why adults won't enjoy the simplicity and enthusiasm of the writing. I enjoyed it, but it is definitely not for everyone.

[Ross Mountney · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I was a young woman with horse yearning, stuck in a city, this was one of my fave books. Years later, my own horse long gone, I reread it and discover it still is!

[Rena Sherwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actually, the title is Talking of Horses, so if some Goodreads librarian could change this, that would be great. However, this wrong title is the title you would need to use to find a copy of the 1977 edition at the Internet Archive.

Monica Dickens was a direct descendant from Charles Dickens, and for my money, was a much better writer than her famous ancestor. She had horses or ponies for most of her life. She lived in both the UK and the USA, which was the country she lived in when this book was written. She's best known as the writer of the Follyfoot series, which was so popular in the UK that it was made into a TV series, which ran from 1971 - 1973.

This little non-fiction book was aimed for UK kids aged 8 - 14, according to the back cover, but it's really for horse lovers of all ages. It's a gentle and thoughtful ramble of a book. It's part memoir, part instruction manual. There are tips for what to do, but many more tips on what NOT to do. There are times when Dickens seems to despise other people, but it's not without cause.

This was one of those books I savored, so I only read one or two chapters a day. It made a nice change from many of the other books I recently read.

The main problem with the book is that much of the training advice is out of date. Hitting your horse with a fence rail in order to get him to load into a trailer is not exactly kosher. This book is aimed for people lucky enough to have their equines at home. Unfortunately, most horse and pony owners have to board their animals. Grooming in a stall is dangerous if cross-ties in a stable agile are available. It's things like that made me knock off a star.

There's also no organization to the book. It would've benefited from named chapters and/or an index.

The pen and ink illustrations by Margery Gill perfectly suit the laid-back, relaxed tone of the book. They're quite realistic, with excellent horses and ponies drawn. There are also impressive drawings of tack.