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! The books have very nice illustrations as can be seen on the right.

Apart from these scanty details I can find no other information at all about the author! Please contact me if you have more info.

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 adventures of Melka continue in England.

Collector's Info:
Not common, they are nevertheless reasonably easy to find without their dust-jackets and will usually 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.