Post by Claire on Nov 7, 2007 12:37:31 GMT 1
PLOT OVERVIEW…
The plot centers around a young girl, Alison, who, after a scornful remark by her humourless English teacher, vows to write a book. Because her favourite occupation is riding and she owns a lovely Highland pony, Alison eventually decides to write a pony book. She centres upon a plot where the heroine wins a prize at a gymkhana, but the only problem is Alison has never won anything. She decides she must train her pony to win an event in order to know what it feels like.
The action is set partly in the dreadful boarding which Alison attends, and partly at her home in the Scottish borders, and the plot centers around both Alison’s attempts at planning, writing and publishing a book, and her efforts to improve her riding.
MAIN CHARACTERS...
Alison Dunbar – A rather plain and plump girl who loves ponies and English literature, but is pretty hopeless at everything else. She longs to prove that she is good at something by writing a pony book
Tamsin Trelawny – Alison’s best friend and book illustrator.
Miss Boddington – Alison’s English teacher. A starchy and sarcastic woman who upsets Alison by putting down her efforts in what was previous her best and most beloved subject. Her cruel remarks inspire Alison into writing her book.
Miss Helpman – The headmistress at Alison’s school. She is sympathetic to Alison’s problems.
Claire ‘Hop’ Hopcraft and Harriet ‘Harry’ Broughton – Two of Alison’s schoolfriends, with whom she quarrels.
Marla – Alison’s pony
REVIEW...
For me there are three elements which contribute to the success of this book. Firstly, the immediate identification with and sympathy the reader feels for the main character, secondly the humour, and thirdly the originality of the book, both in plot and setting.
As with most books written in the first person, we are plunged straight into the character’s world with the intimacy of reading a diary, and not just any old diary but a real warts and all account!
We immediately warm to Alison who like the majority of us would love to be a better, more beautiful, more interesting person. Early on in the book we learn however that she is plump, with carroty hair and freckles, meek, hopeless at games, a disappointment to her parents and a trial to her teachers. She is further endeared to us by the two things in life she loves, literature and ponies, which will be the favourites of many of us readers too!
The book is also effortlessly humourous. From the very first paragraph the reader knows he or she is in for a delightful treat. Ms Cannan has a brilliant eye for detail which she uses to highlight the absurdities of life. Her humour is of the irreverent and sometimes slightly cutting type which is British through and through. The dialogue in particular is realistic and yet at the same time extremely funny: the sort of deadpan humour of the stand-up comic bemoaning all the little irritations of life.
The originality of the book comes from both setting and plot. I can’t think of another pony book where such a large part of the action is set in a stuffy girl’s boarding school. In fact it is not until Chapter Four that we actually leave the school for Alison’s home. However this is not to say that the school part of the book is simply something to be endured until we reach the ‘horsy’ bit, on the contrary the school section is the funniest and possibly most skillfully written part of the book. The absurdities of a 1940s British boarding school are brought brilliantly to life from the bathing in cold water, to the prefects prowling around waiting to catch out some wrong-doer and dole out order marks. It is clear that the author is condemning this life as both ridiculous and stultifying, which reflects her own attitude which ‘disapproved of schools and approved of books and riding.’ Also Ms. Cannan has, whether by design or happy accident,
astutely blended traditional school story elements with those of a pony story, therefore appealing to both sets of readers.
The plot of writing a pony book being the raison d’etre of the novel was, for the era it was written, highly original. Afterwards a number of pony novels featured a girl writing a book, the Jill series for example. However even then the device is mainly used as a way to communicate the stories in the first person. With ‘I Wrote A Pony Book’ the author is looking at the whole idea of writing a book from inspiration, to technicalities, to achieving verisimilitude, to publishing the thing at the end of it all! (She is therefore giving us a double treat, not only an excellent story but also an interesting account of the ‘nuts and bolts’ of actually writing it.)
The desire for originality by the author comes through in the section where Alison and Tamzin are
discussing the plot of the book to be written and scorning the rather tired ‘gypsy steals pony’ plot which was prevalent at the time (and indeed cropped up in many a pony book years afterwards).
Another plot device which the author handles expertly is the element of contrast in the book. The most obvious of course being the contrast between the prison-like atmosphere of the school and the pleasantness and easy freedom of Alison’s home. Once again this is created right at the start of the novel where Alison contrasts the “stern and disapproving faces” of her schoolmistresses with the “dear furry faces of the dogs and ponies and cats and rabbits” which she has left behind her at home. The school is set in the “sodden and unkind Midlands” (which Alison quotes from the poet Belloc), whereas Alison’s home is in the borders of Scotland which Alison conjures up as a place of romance, history and beauty.
We also have the contrast of the two teachers Miss Boddington and the Headmistress, Miss Helpmann. The former is clearly an enemy of Alison’s who not only dislikes the girl, but also every author and poet she admires. The headmistress however is seen as a sympathetic figure. Possibly because she is not cut from the same cloth as the average teacher, being slightly eccentric herself, she seems to understand the trouble Alison has fitting into the conventional atmosphere of the school. Interestingly the
author seems to scorn conventionality, with the most conventional characters, Miss Boddington, Alison’s parents, Hop and Harry, seen as bad, and the more eccentric characters such as Tamzin and Miss Helpmann as good. This once again reflects Ms. Cannan’s view of the conventional school life which she apparently scorned.
However probably the most skilful and subtle contrast is that between the light bantering tone of the novel and the very real tragedy of it, which is the way Alison is treated by her parents. This is brilliantly done in that it is not maudlin or overstated. Alison introduces the fact that she is a ‘disappointment to her parents’ and that her father would have preferred a boy nonchalantly in with a list of her other failings such as doing belly flops at diving, and being round-shouldered, when of course it is a dreadful thing for a child to realize, and not in the same category as these other trivialities at all. The attitude of her parents is highlighted by the contrast between them and the other happy elements of Alison’s home life. To fit in with the opposing worlds of school and home, Alison’s parents should have been warm, kind and welcoming. The fact that they aren’t creates a jarring note in the book, which I think is intentionally done by the author. Her parents want her to be good at things like games and sports, and her being a bookworm is rather a trial to them. Not only is she trying to prove herself to Miss Boddington by writing the book, but she is without realizing it, also trying to prove to her parents that she can be good at something. And to make them accept her for who she is with her own failings and her own special abilities.
Although this book can be enjoyed as a thoroughly entertaining pony book, it does work on a deeper level and delivers some important messages about life in a thoroughly non-didactic way. A pleasure to read from beginning to end, it also gives the reader a sense of satisfaction at having read something worthwhile.
In summary I would very highly recommend this book, especially to those who enjoy a humourous and cleverly written novel which is a little different from the norm. You will definitely find yourself giggling in parts, and silently fuming in others as you share Alison’s ups and downs throughout the book.
I would rate the book as 5 horseshoes
The plot centers around a young girl, Alison, who, after a scornful remark by her humourless English teacher, vows to write a book. Because her favourite occupation is riding and she owns a lovely Highland pony, Alison eventually decides to write a pony book. She centres upon a plot where the heroine wins a prize at a gymkhana, but the only problem is Alison has never won anything. She decides she must train her pony to win an event in order to know what it feels like.
The action is set partly in the dreadful boarding which Alison attends, and partly at her home in the Scottish borders, and the plot centers around both Alison’s attempts at planning, writing and publishing a book, and her efforts to improve her riding.
MAIN CHARACTERS...
Alison Dunbar – A rather plain and plump girl who loves ponies and English literature, but is pretty hopeless at everything else. She longs to prove that she is good at something by writing a pony book
Tamsin Trelawny – Alison’s best friend and book illustrator.
Miss Boddington – Alison’s English teacher. A starchy and sarcastic woman who upsets Alison by putting down her efforts in what was previous her best and most beloved subject. Her cruel remarks inspire Alison into writing her book.
Miss Helpman – The headmistress at Alison’s school. She is sympathetic to Alison’s problems.
Claire ‘Hop’ Hopcraft and Harriet ‘Harry’ Broughton – Two of Alison’s schoolfriends, with whom she quarrels.
Marla – Alison’s pony
REVIEW...
For me there are three elements which contribute to the success of this book. Firstly, the immediate identification with and sympathy the reader feels for the main character, secondly the humour, and thirdly the originality of the book, both in plot and setting.
As with most books written in the first person, we are plunged straight into the character’s world with the intimacy of reading a diary, and not just any old diary but a real warts and all account!
We immediately warm to Alison who like the majority of us would love to be a better, more beautiful, more interesting person. Early on in the book we learn however that she is plump, with carroty hair and freckles, meek, hopeless at games, a disappointment to her parents and a trial to her teachers. She is further endeared to us by the two things in life she loves, literature and ponies, which will be the favourites of many of us readers too!
The book is also effortlessly humourous. From the very first paragraph the reader knows he or she is in for a delightful treat. Ms Cannan has a brilliant eye for detail which she uses to highlight the absurdities of life. Her humour is of the irreverent and sometimes slightly cutting type which is British through and through. The dialogue in particular is realistic and yet at the same time extremely funny: the sort of deadpan humour of the stand-up comic bemoaning all the little irritations of life.
The originality of the book comes from both setting and plot. I can’t think of another pony book where such a large part of the action is set in a stuffy girl’s boarding school. In fact it is not until Chapter Four that we actually leave the school for Alison’s home. However this is not to say that the school part of the book is simply something to be endured until we reach the ‘horsy’ bit, on the contrary the school section is the funniest and possibly most skillfully written part of the book. The absurdities of a 1940s British boarding school are brought brilliantly to life from the bathing in cold water, to the prefects prowling around waiting to catch out some wrong-doer and dole out order marks. It is clear that the author is condemning this life as both ridiculous and stultifying, which reflects her own attitude which ‘disapproved of schools and approved of books and riding.’ Also Ms. Cannan has, whether by design or happy accident,
astutely blended traditional school story elements with those of a pony story, therefore appealing to both sets of readers.
The plot of writing a pony book being the raison d’etre of the novel was, for the era it was written, highly original. Afterwards a number of pony novels featured a girl writing a book, the Jill series for example. However even then the device is mainly used as a way to communicate the stories in the first person. With ‘I Wrote A Pony Book’ the author is looking at the whole idea of writing a book from inspiration, to technicalities, to achieving verisimilitude, to publishing the thing at the end of it all! (She is therefore giving us a double treat, not only an excellent story but also an interesting account of the ‘nuts and bolts’ of actually writing it.)
The desire for originality by the author comes through in the section where Alison and Tamzin are
discussing the plot of the book to be written and scorning the rather tired ‘gypsy steals pony’ plot which was prevalent at the time (and indeed cropped up in many a pony book years afterwards).
Another plot device which the author handles expertly is the element of contrast in the book. The most obvious of course being the contrast between the prison-like atmosphere of the school and the pleasantness and easy freedom of Alison’s home. Once again this is created right at the start of the novel where Alison contrasts the “stern and disapproving faces” of her schoolmistresses with the “dear furry faces of the dogs and ponies and cats and rabbits” which she has left behind her at home. The school is set in the “sodden and unkind Midlands” (which Alison quotes from the poet Belloc), whereas Alison’s home is in the borders of Scotland which Alison conjures up as a place of romance, history and beauty.
We also have the contrast of the two teachers Miss Boddington and the Headmistress, Miss Helpmann. The former is clearly an enemy of Alison’s who not only dislikes the girl, but also every author and poet she admires. The headmistress however is seen as a sympathetic figure. Possibly because she is not cut from the same cloth as the average teacher, being slightly eccentric herself, she seems to understand the trouble Alison has fitting into the conventional atmosphere of the school. Interestingly the
author seems to scorn conventionality, with the most conventional characters, Miss Boddington, Alison’s parents, Hop and Harry, seen as bad, and the more eccentric characters such as Tamzin and Miss Helpmann as good. This once again reflects Ms. Cannan’s view of the conventional school life which she apparently scorned.
However probably the most skilful and subtle contrast is that between the light bantering tone of the novel and the very real tragedy of it, which is the way Alison is treated by her parents. This is brilliantly done in that it is not maudlin or overstated. Alison introduces the fact that she is a ‘disappointment to her parents’ and that her father would have preferred a boy nonchalantly in with a list of her other failings such as doing belly flops at diving, and being round-shouldered, when of course it is a dreadful thing for a child to realize, and not in the same category as these other trivialities at all. The attitude of her parents is highlighted by the contrast between them and the other happy elements of Alison’s home life. To fit in with the opposing worlds of school and home, Alison’s parents should have been warm, kind and welcoming. The fact that they aren’t creates a jarring note in the book, which I think is intentionally done by the author. Her parents want her to be good at things like games and sports, and her being a bookworm is rather a trial to them. Not only is she trying to prove herself to Miss Boddington by writing the book, but she is without realizing it, also trying to prove to her parents that she can be good at something. And to make them accept her for who she is with her own failings and her own special abilities.
Although this book can be enjoyed as a thoroughly entertaining pony book, it does work on a deeper level and delivers some important messages about life in a thoroughly non-didactic way. A pleasure to read from beginning to end, it also gives the reader a sense of satisfaction at having read something worthwhile.
In summary I would very highly recommend this book, especially to those who enjoy a humourous and cleverly written novel which is a little different from the norm. You will definitely find yourself giggling in parts, and silently fuming in others as you share Alison’s ups and downs throughout the book.
I would rate the book as 5 horseshoes