Sheila Stuart (1892-1974)

Real name Mary Gladys Baker. Born in Scotland. Trained as a  journalist and wrote many articles before turning her hand to books, including children's adventures and non-fiction.

Best known for the 'Alison' series about a girl and her brother and their many adventures in the Scottish countryside. Two of these were pony-related and can be classed as pony books. The others were more general adventures, although occaisionally mentioning ponies.

Horse & Pony Books in the Alison series:
These two pony adventure stories feature Alison and her brother and friends and are set in Scotland. They are just two of a long series, but are the only real pony stories of the lot. I have included the full series below, but if you are only interested in pony books these two can be read alone.

ALISON'S PONY ADVENTURE
(BLACKIE 1953)
ILLUSTRATED BY GILBERT DUNLOP
Reprinted in hardback by Blackie
EDITIONS PICTURED: 1st edition, Blackie 'orange cover' reprint.

ALISON'S RIDING ADVENTURE
(BLACKIE 1958)
ILLUSTRATED BY GILBERT DUNLOP
Reprinted in hardback by Blackie
EDITIONS PICTURED: 1st edition, Blackie 'orange cover' reprint.

For those interested in all the titles the complete series comprises:

Alison's Highland  Holiday
More Adventures of Alison
Alison's Christmas Adventure
Well Done Alison!
Alison's Easter Adventure
Alison's Poaching Adventure
Alison's Kidnapping Adventure
Alison's Pony Adventure
Alison's Island Adventure
Alison's Spy Adventure
Alison and the Witch's Cave
Alison's Yacht Adventure
Alison's Riding Adventure
Alison's Cliff Adventure
Alison's Caravan Adventure

Collectors info:
The two pony books are fairly easy to find in the UK, but quite hard to find and elsewhere.The first editions are preferable to the Blackie reprints which have the notorious orange jackets and inferior cover art. For completists or those who want to read the non-pony books, some of the others in the series are quite hard to track down, although some are being republished by Fidra Books in paperback.