“I don’t like people….I only like horses.” National Velvet – Enid Bagnold

To be honest, I never went looking for Enid Bagnold.  I just happened to stumble upon a house that she lived in when I was looking for someone else.  It’s funny how writers seemed to congregate in the same areas.

Enid Bagnold lived in the same street as Sir Winston Churchill and Virginia Woolf

Enid Algerine Bagnold was born on the 27^th October 1889 in Rochester Kent. Although born in the UK, she was brought up mostly in Jamaica; however Enid did attend school in London.

During World War I, Enid was a nurse but was dismissed from work after writing critically about the hospital’s administration. The rest of the war was spent in France as a driver. These experiences were portrayed in written form as A Diary Without Dates and The Happy Foreigner.

Enid married Roderick Jones in 1920, but continued to write under her maiden name.  By all accounts, it seems that this woman was strong willed and determined.  Perhaps not a feminist as such, but a rebellious woman who believed ordinary women could do extraordinary things and this comes to light in National Velvet.

Before I even read National Velvet, I watched a television show  about a girl named Velvet Brown and her love for her horse King. Velvet’s constant desire was for King to one day win the Grand National.  The original story is slightly different.  Set in a small English coastal town, it’s the story of a 14 year old girl who rides a horse to victory in the prestigious Grand National in the 1920’s. But more than that, it’s a story of inspiration about an ordinary girl who broke the rules and succeeded.

Enid Bagnold – Lady Jones, passed away in 1981 and is buried in St Mary’s Churchyard in Rottingdean, not far from the home that she shared with her husband. Throughout her life she chose the path of truth and difficulty and received a CBE for her efforts in 1976 which leads me to say that, Once upon a time in England, a self-believer wrote a story that inspires us to do whatever we believe we can.