Anna Sewell: The Woman Who Wrote Black Beauty

The children''s novel Black Beauty is estimated to have sold over 30 million copies, is the sixth most read book in the English language and is loved by young and old alike across the globe. Yet before Susan Chitty''s classic biography was first published in 1971, little was known about its author, the horse-lover who wrote her only book in her fifties, sold it outright for £20 and did not live to know of its colossal success.

As well as penning what became probably the most successful animal story ever written, Anna Sewell is credited with being the greatest single influence in promoting the humane treatment of horses. Her extraordinary life is chronicled in this fascinating biography, updated for the twenty-first century in this beautiful edition, from the tragic accident that left her lame from the age of 14 to the writing of her best-selling novel from her death bed.

Documenting Anna''s strict Quaker upbringing and typically Victorian relationship with her dominating mother, The Woman Who Wrote Black Beauty is a must for all horse lovers and all those who still raise a tear at the thought of Beauty in the orchard at Birtwick, standing with his old friends under the apple trees.