The Blue Horse (12 page)
Authors: Marita Conlon-Mckenna
MARITA CONLON-McKENNA is one of Ireland’s most popular children’s authors. She has written many bestselling children’s books.
Under the Hawthorn Tree
, her first novel, became an immediate bestseller and has been described as ‘the biggest success story in children’s historical fiction.’ It has been reprinted numerous times since its first publication in 1990, and has reached a worldwide market through translations and foreign editions. Its sequels,
Wildflower Girl
and
Fields of Home
, which complete the
Children of the Famine
trilogy, have also been hugely successful. Marita’s other children’s novels have also received wide critical acclaim.
Granny MacGinty (for younger readers)
Wildflower Girl
Fields of Home
The Blue Horse
No Goodbye
Safe Harbour
In Deep Dark Wood
A Girl Called Blue
This eBook edition first published 2012 by The O’Brien Press Ltd,
12 Terenure Road East, Rathgar, Dublin 6, Ireland
Tel: +353 1 4923333; Fax: +353 1 4922777
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.obrien.ie
First published 1992
eBook ISBN: 978–1
–
84717
–
468
–
0
Copyright for text © Marita Conlon-McKenna
Copyright for editing, layout, design © The O’Brien Press Ltd
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Carrying out any unauthorised act in relation to a copyright work may result in both a civil claim for damages and criminal prosecution. For permission to copy any part of this publication contact
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Conlon-McKenna, Marita
Blue Horse
I. Title
823.914 [J]
The O’Brien Press receives assistance from
Typesetting, layout, editing, design: The O’Brien Press Ltd
Cover frontispiece drawing: Donald Teskey
The characters in this book are totally fictitious and bear no resemblance to any person, living or dead. If any such resemblance occurs, it is entirely accidental and not the intention of the author
.
Other books by
MARITA CONLON-McKENNA
CHILDREN OF THE FAMINE
TRILOGY
UNDER THE HAWTHORN TREE
Ireland in the 1840s is devastated by famine. When tragedy strikes their family, Eily, Michael and Peggy are left to fend for themselves. Starving and in danger of ending up in the dreaded workhouse, they run away. Their one hope is to find the great-aunts they have heard about in their mother’s stories. With tremendous courage they set out on a journey that will test every reserve of strength, love and loyalty they possess.
WILDFLOWER GIRL
At the age of seven, Peggy made a terrifying journey through famine-stricken Ireland. Now thirteen, and determined to make a new life for herself, she sets off alone across the Atlantic to America. Will she ever see her family again?
An extraordinary story of courage, independence and adventure.
FIELDS OF HOME
For Eily, Michael and Peggy the memory of the famine is still strong. But Mary-Brigid, Eily’s first child, has the future to look forward to. What kind of future is it? Ireland is in turmoil, with evictions, burnings, secret meetings and land wars. Eily and her family may be thrown off their farm, Michael may lose his job in the big house, and Peggy, in America, feels trapped in her role as a maid. Will they ever have land and a home they can call their own? Eily, Michael and Peggy have once shown great courage – now their courage is needed again.
