| Updated 21st Feb 2007 |
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Elyne Mitchell's Brumby books.Please do not email me asking where to buy these books. All the information I have is available by following this link: Where to buy the Silver Brumby Books Introduction
A new Silver Brumby related forum has started here: The Silver Brumby Collection. Introduction
Let me introduce you to what have to be my favorite books of all time, Elyne Mitchell's Brumby books, and how I came to be a devoted fan of these tales. In the early seventies I was given the first four Silver Brumby books as a Christmas present by my mother who knew I liked horses. The books did have beautiful painted covers, but opening successive presents each time to find yet another brumby book was a little disconcerting. In these stories the horses talk to each other and to other bush creatures, a unique feature of the series. Initially this concept of dialog between the horses put me off the books as I didn't really appreciate fantasy, so I only read a few pages before setting the books aside. The first book of the series was even loaned for an extended period of time to a girl with eye problems. This was in a period where I thought electronics dictionaries were good reading!
Others were later found at the local librarys and I read these too. The majority of the stories were reprinted to correspond with the 1993 release of the Silver Brumby movie, allowing me to fill in a few of the gaps. To my surprise, there were several new titles too. Since then I have found even more new stories, and a number of the titles have been reprinted yet again in 1999. I managed to pick up the out of print titles from second hand bookshops and through ebay. These stories I have read many times, often starting the series again as soon as I have finished reading it. I have even created lists and family trees for most of the horses that appear in these stories just for the fun of it.
The next two books written follow the stories of descendants of Thowra, his son Wirramirra and grandson Tiarri, and the most recent five books follow the stories of other non-silver brumbies, though Thowra or Baringa are mentioned or appear in most of them. Son of Storm has a fairly major role in both Dancing Brumby titles. Each story also describes in detail the beauty of the Australian high country in a way that only someone who has lived there could. Even though these books were written for children, if you love horses I recommend you read these stories, no matter what your age. Most of the books can be read as stand alone stories, but to really appreciate them, I suggest reading the books of the Silver Brumby series in order.
A cartoon series based on Thowra's adventures has also been produced, and so far three seasons have been aired on television. These have a "c" children's rating and view the world from a much simplified and tamer perspective. "Based on" is the key here. Only some of the characters have made it to the screen, and the stories do not follow the books. I can only say thank you to Elyne Mitchell for sharing with us these beautiful creatures of her imagination, and the bush through which they run.
Ken. (sasami@hotkey.net.au) |
It wasn't until I found myself in bed with the flu and nothing to do that
I looked at the books again, and found to my surprise that they were fantastic.
Having read and really enjoyed my four books, I went searching and found Moon Filly
at the school library. While written in 1968, its existance was not acknowledged in
the 1973 printing of the Silver Brumby books. It immediately became one of my
favorite books. A year or two later, around 1981, I found my own copy of Moon Filly at a
distant newsagency as part of a boxed set of five novels, Moon Filly
having been reprinted in 1976 and boxed with the four books from the 1975 printing.
As the books had been on the shelf for a while, the gentleman at the counter was
quite happy to split the boxed set so that I could take my prize.
Elyne Mitchell's style has changed through the series too. Moon Filly, initially unrelated
to the Silver Brumby books was written in a dialogless style, with horses communicating in
manners more consistent with real horses. One more book was written in the original style
after this, Silver Brumby Whirlwind, intending to complete the series, and my copy, the
1978 reprint, states that it is indeed the final book of the series. Fairly obviously, this
is not the last book in the series. This book ties Moon
Filly to the Silver Brumby series by having Thowra court Yuri, the moon filly's first foal.
The other books mentioned below have a more human perspective on the brumbies. Three
are related, two being sequels to the first, and the others are stand alone. Of these,
only one book, the first of the series of three appears to have been recently in print (1992).
Reviews | |
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| Title | First published |
| Silver Brumby series: | |
| The Silver Brumby | 1958 |
| Silver Brumby's Daughter | 1960 |
| Silver Brumbies of the South | 1965 |
| Silver Brumby Kingdom | 1966 |
| Moon Filly | 1968 |
| Silver Brumby Whirlwind | 1973 |
| Son of the Whirlwind | 1979 |
| Silver Brumby, Silver Dingo | 1993 |
| Dancing Brumby | 1995 |
| Brumbies of the Night | 1996 |
| Dancing Brumby's Rainbow | 1998 |
| The Thousandth Brumby | 1999 |
| Brumby Stories | 1999 |
| Others: | |
| The Colt at Taparoo | 1975 |
| The Colt from Snowy River | 1980 |
| Snowy River Brumby | 1980 |
| Brumby Racer | 1981 |
| The Man from Snowy River | 1982 |
| Of interest: | |
| Australia's Alps | 1946 |
| Chauvel Country | 1983 |
| The Silver Brumby movie book | 1993 |
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Silver Brumby books from Holland. The following titles are the first six books of the Silver brumby series as published by B.V. Het Goede Boek in Holland. Note the direct translations below each title. Information on Dutch titles courtesy of Wilma Scholte and Lara Verhoeven. |
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Silver Brumby books from Sweden. The following are the titles of the Silver brumby series as published in Sweden. Note the direct translations below each title.
Names of the horses in the Swedish titles
The artist for the Swedish titles is B.O. Wennerberg. He did both cover and internal illustration. The cover art was also used for the Dutch release. Information on Swedish titles courtesy of Ann. Check the Cover Gallery for pictures of most of these titles. |
Where to buy the Silver Brumby Books. |
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Once again finding these titles has become problematic. Probably Ebay and some of the second hand online book sellers will give the best results at the moment. Retailers that were (are?) stocking them include: Aussie Books new copies, Aussie Books zShop (preloved), Angus & Robertson, Collins Booksellers or Dymocks. You could also check the HarperCollinsPublishers ordering page for lists of other retailers that may stock these titles. These online retailers are usually prepared to send books overseas. I have been contacted by people who have successfully ordered books this way. Failing that, there's always Ebay. Quite a few titles show up there at reasonable prices. Click here to run a search that will return the current listings. |
The Books
This, the first in the series of brumby books by Elyne Mitchell was written for the eldest
of her four children.
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The night the new pony mare Gay arrives at the cattle station, Sprite, the stallion to
whom she was to be mated dies. Instead she is used as a stock horse by the stallion's former
owner. Eleven months later, to everyone's surprise, she gives birth to a lovely chestnut colt, Fire.
Her owners can only guess who sired the colt, and try to preserve Sprite's bloodline through
a bad tempered black stallion. It not until a foal is born to a little brumby filly that
the truth of Fire's parentage is known.
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Australia's AlpsThis was Elyne Mitchell's first published book. Of particular interest to brumby story lovers are the photos of the alps, and the photos of the brumby Elyne and her companions caught, an event that was part of the inspiration for her writing the brumby stories!Chauvel CountryThis is Elyne Mitchell's autobiography, up to the end of World War II, and the story of her ancestors. Read about Elyne's adventures and experiences in the same places that her brumby stories feature. Read Elyne's comments on the inspiration behind The Silver Brumby, The Silver Brumbies of the South and Silver Brumby Kingdom.Note: I believe this book is also out of print.
The Silver Brumby movie bookBy Peter Oliver.
This book gives a brief description of the making of the Silver Brumby movie, includes a few "behind the scenes" color photographs, and the story based on the screenplay. I picked mine up on Ebay for $2.00. I've since seen one sell for over $80.00, simply because the seller mentioned it contained a picture of Russell Crowe!
The Silver Brumby movie bookWhile it has the same title as the above book, and was printed around the same time, it is very different. It contains many glossy pictures from the movie, some full page, and a very simplified story line. 24 pages plus the covers. |
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Page design and maintenance by Ken Stone sasami@hotkey.net.au.
While all care has been taken to insure information presented here is
correct, it is given as a guide only.
Page design copyright 1997 by Ken Stone. Original photos and art copyright 1997 by Ken Stone
The Silver Brumby and all other titles mentioned here are Copyright ©
Elyne Mitchell.
The current publishers are
For more information on these books contact your local bookseller.
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