Though superficially very funny, its humour barely concealed the seriousness of its intentions, which can be encapsulated in the single sentence: "Mummy says pardon is a much worse word than fuck. Crammed into every page too, like a traffic report where everyone is sitting what everyone is saying. Can she be the first mare in thirty years, and Amber the first woman ever, to conquer this mighty race?

The horse, named Mrs Wilkinson, forms a steadfast bond with Etta, and recovers to become a celebrated racehorse, competing in the biggest race of all, the Grand National at Aintree. Thank you for giving me another wonderful ready, I can’t wait for your next book about Rupert turning 60. I know the stories are great and romantic and rolicking and sexy, but honestly Jilly, I want more of the good stuff and less of the dross. I think it would be great if she was edited better ie the word beadily referred three times in the opening when referring to a particular character - surely this could have been edited?I was going all right until I hit the two chapters where Etta and Dora walk around the village info dumping the cast of thousands to the reader. What I don't understand is why no one, not any of the many many people who care for her nor any authorities, investigate and prosecute the hideous crime.

One night Etta finds a horribly mutilated filly in the snow in Valent's woods and persuades the outraged Valent to take her in. I felt fairly uncomfortable as well with some of the work that Jilly did involving Pakistanis and Al Qaeda (I will leave you to wonder how she encompassed this into the world of jump racing!The only thing on earth that made me want to read this book was that it was about horse racing, I'm a racing fanatic so the story of finding an abused horse near to death and saving it and turning it into a champion attracted me. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site.