Writing Black Beauty
Anna Sewell and the Story of Animal Rights
$49.40
- Paperback
- Release Date
24 September 2026
Summary
Black Beauty is a novel that changed our world. Intended to ‘induce kindness’ in a Victorian audience who relied on horses for transport, travel and power, it remains a dearly loved children’s classic.
Writing Black Beauty is the story of the remarkable woman who wrote this phenomenal book. Born in 1820 to a young Quaker couple, Anna Sewell grew up in poverty in London. She was 14 when she fell and injured her ankle, leaving her permanently disabled. Rejecting the limitations…
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781837053520 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 1837053529 |
| Author: | Celia Brayfield |
| Publisher: | The History Press Ltd |
| Imprint: | The History Press Ltd |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Release Date: | 24 September 2026 |
| Dimensions: | 129mm x 198mm |
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Critics Review
‘A welcome reassessment, a book written in gentle, engaging prose about a gentle, engaging heroine… Such an approach to unattended and unjustly treated aspects of the world is worthy of Anna Sewell herself.’
* Times Literary Supplement *‘Anna Sewell’s Black Beauty is one of the most famous standalone books of its kind… as Celia Brayfield shows in this thoughtful and absorbing story, it became a powerful weapon in the campaign to teach people to be kind to animals at a time when cruelty toward them was endemic.’
– Helen Rappaport‘Few biographies are half as interesting, engaging and rewarding as this… both a tragedy and a feel-good history, the infectious optimism is what remains.’
– Anne Sebba‘This is as touching and extraordinary as Black Beauty itself: a hidden story longing to be told, and deeply affecting. Beautifully written and researched, it reads like a dream.’
– Dame Joanna Lumley CBECelia Brayfield
Celia Brayfield PhD SFHEA is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University. She is the author of nine novels and six non-fiction titles. Rebel Writers: The Accidental Feminists, a biographical study of the very young women writers of the 1960s, was published by Bloomsbury in 2019.
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