Her novels about a horse-loving orphaned teenager became children's classics and this year KM Peyton has been honoured with an MBE. She talks to Susanna Rustin
'I used to think it was a load of old tosh, all these honours, until they gave me one' … KM Peyton. Photograph: Eamonn Mccabe for the Guardian
KM Peyton's passion for horses dates "from the year dot", but she was almost 50 when she joined her first fox hunt. "It's called the Essex Farmers and it's not one of your posh hunts." By then, the author of more than 30 books, many of them about girls and ponies, Peyton had only recently bought her first horse, after her eldest daughter had left home and her ponies been given away. "I really missed them, he was away sailing all the time," – she nods at her husband Mike, who sits on the opposite side of the wood-burning stove in the study of their house on the River Crouch in Essex – "I was secretary of the Pony Club so I knew all these horsey people, and I said, 'I can't go hunting, I can't ride well enough,' and they all said, 'Don't let that stop you!'"
And her first day hunting was "wonderful! You're not supposed to say that today, are you? At one time I went every Wednesday and Saturday."
Peyton, who is 84, was made MBE in the New Year honours for services to children's literature, and on 4 March will go to Buckingham Palace with her family. She treats it as a great joke and says she won't wear a hat, but has been delighted as well as surprised by the many cards, phonecalls and letters.
"I used to think it was a load of old tosh, all these honours, until they gave me one. I got a letter today from the secretary of state [for culture, media and sport], Maria Miller, congratulating me. I don't think the Queen does a lot of them any more, does she? It will probably be Charles. I like Charles. I shall say, 'I think you're a good chap, Charles.'" She laughs.
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And her first day hunting was "wonderful! You're not supposed to say that today, are you? At one time I went every Wednesday and Saturday."Peyton, who is 84, was made MBE in the New Year honours for services to children's literature, and on 4 March will go to Buckingham Palace with her family. She treats it as a great joke and says she won't wear a hat, but has been delighted as well as surprised by the many cards, phonecalls and letters.
"I used to think it was a load of old tosh, all these honours, until they gave me one. I got a letter today from the secretary of state [for culture, media and sport], Maria Miller, congratulating me. I don't think the Queen does a lot of them any more, does she? It will probably be Charles. I like Charles. I shall say, 'I think you're a good chap, Charles.'" She laughs.
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