Jill and the Lost Ponies
Author: Jane Badger
Published: 2020
Available as paperback or Kindle edition
View now at amazon.co.uk
About the book
In Ruby Ferguson’s Pony Jobs for Jill – the final instalment of the popular series – Captain Cholly-Sawcutt told Jill and Ann to put ponies aside as a hobby and go and do a shorthand course. Author Jane Badger always wondered what would happen if they went off and did just that, and so in this sequel to the Jill books, set in the 1950s, we find Jill and Ann are at a London secretarial college, doing what they’ve been told to do. With ponies left firmly behind them. Or so they think.
Review
Anyone who read and loved the Jill series by Ruby Ferguson as a child will be interested to know there’s a sequel out, and another one on the way.
Never miss out on the latest happenings in the equestrian world
At the end of the last book, Pony Jobs for Jill, renamed Challenges for Jill, the incomparable Captain Cholly-Sawcutt tells Jill and Ann they should take a secretarial course and forget about working with horses. Jane may not have been the only pony-mad child to feel dissatisfied with this, but she is the only one to have written and published a sequel.
In Jill and the Lost Ponies, Jill and Ann have moved to London for their secretarial course and left Chatton and their ponies behind. But if any sensitive readers are by now in tears, remember that keeping these girls and horses apart was never going to last for long…
The book brings back a host of characters from the previous nine instalments; not only Jill, Ann, Susan Pyke and the captain himself, but a lot more, including some you may have forgotten.
Jill’s voice comes through as it ever did, and fans will thoroughly enjoy this and be looking forward to the next episode, Jill and the Pony Club, which is out on 18 November 2021 and in which a return to Chatton is on the cards…
Verdict
A great read for fans of the original series, but also for pony-loving children who are yet to discover Jill.
Eleanor is an experienced journalist who spent over eight years working for local and national newspapers before joining H&H as news editor in March 2016. Passionate about equine welfare and exposing the truth, Eleanor has reported on all aspects of the industry, from Brexit to anti-bullying campaigns, and from dressage rules to mules. Her sport of choice is showjumping, in which she competes her own horses, and she also enjoys reporting at local jumping shows through to international championships.