"National Velvet."

Description:

This is the story of Velvet Brown, the youngest of four daughters of a butcher living in a village in Sussex, England. Her sisters are noted beauties, she is not. They have a younger brother. Velvet wins a piebald horse (painted, black and white) in a raffle. She is a natural if unorthodox rider. Velvet's mother once swam the Channel, so there is a seam of challenge and achievement in her. Her father's help was once a jockey, and he and Velvet devise a scheme where she would ride the horse (The Pie) in the Grand National, the peak of the steeplechase races. In the days when the story is set, women were not permitted to ride in this race.

subjects: Horses,  steeplechasing,  children,  families

Places: Sussex,  Liverpool,  Aintree

Times: 1930s