Joan Penney

British author. She wrote a short pony series about an Arab horse, set partly in Africa, partly in England, and also a dog story. As her books were written in the early to mid 1930s, this makes her one of the earliest of all the pony book authors! Apart from these scanty details I can find no information about the author. Please contact me if you have more, or extra pictures.

Melka Series:

1) MELKA THE STORY OF AN ARAB PONY
(METHUEN 1931)
ILLUSTRATED BY D. L. MAYS
Reprinted in 1934?
SUMMARY: Set partly in Africa, partly in the UK. Melka the Arabian horse is born in the Sudan and has many adventures in the wilds of desert and jungle before she ends up in England.

2) MELKA IN ENGLAND
(METHUEN 1935)
ILLUSTRATED BY D. L. MAYS
SUMMARY: The further adventures of Melka continue in England.

Collector's Info:
Although the books aren't as common as those by more well-known pony authors, they are nevertheless reasonable easy to find without dust-jackets and will be fairly low cost. A bit harder to find with jacket, or outside the UK. Both books have lots of lovely illustrations so are still worth buying without jackets.