London Pride Cannan, Joanna HORSE STORIES - ALL OTHERS

Gift quality first edition hardcover in pink/cream 'tweedy' cloth covered boards quarter-bound with red cloth showing slightly darkened gilt spine title. Spine ends and tips barely bumped (not rubbed), book has a slight forward lean. No names, tears or soil seen in the tight, crisp 148pp heavy gauge leaves, just some light foxing on endpapers. Profusely illustrated with line drawings by Anne Bullen, many of them full page. Original, un-clipped mauve background dust wrapper illustrated with an image of London Pride being led into the summer house in the square (of London) where she was hidden when the young cousins first bought her. Repaired chip at head of spine and upper frt flap fold, as well as one on the soiled solid cream background panel. Book very rare in original hardcover and exceedingly so with it's jacket. Antonia and her brother John spend Christmas in London with their two cousins. It starts when they get up at dawn to fight a duel in the Square gardens and catch the burglar who is stealing State papers from Lord Peveril's house. And they spend all their Christmas money on buying a pony out of an old rag-and-bone-man's cart; They christen her London Pride and manage to keep her for days in the summer house in the Square without anyone knowing. This was no small feat as they had to carry bags of hay and straw about without anyone seeing and suffer the excitement of riding Pride at dead of night, between the policeman's beats. And it all ends up with a glorious and unexpected hunt at Lord Peveril's country house, when Pride jumps with the best of them.