Dark horse : a life of Anna Sewell

This biography reveals the life of Anna Sewell (1820-1878), the author of the classic children's novel "Black Beauty". "Black Beauty" is among the top ten best selling novels for children ever written, a book which actively changed the way people think about animals.

But who was the woman who wrote this famous work? Born in Norfolk, and raised in the Quaker faith, Anna showed an early interest in natural history and was a keen rider, but, aged 14, an accident left her permanently disabled.

She wrote "Black Beauty" from 1871 to 1877, at first dictating to her mother from the sofa on which she lay.

Pirated in America in 1890 - where it was sold as "The Uncle Tom's Cabin of the Horse", its sales broke publishing records.

Sewell lived just long enough to know of her novel's success.

This biography reveals the life of Anna Sewell: her experiences, her beliefs and the sympathy with animals and their suffering that drove her to write her famous work.