The Far-Distant Oxus
Katharine Hull and Pamela Whitlock
A large parcel came by post to Arthur Ransome. He opened it to find the manuscript of this book written by two schoolgirls, during the winter and spring terms, to the detriment of their more serious studies. He began reading it with deep mistrust, but soon found himself unable to stop.
 
A party of children stay in a farmhouse on Exmoor, meet other like-minded children, and have all sorts of adventures, mostly on horseback but also on a raft. They have the sort of holiday that everybody would like to have if only they could.
Preview of Chapter 1.
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In 1936 Katharine Hull (1921-1977) and Pamela Whitlock (1920-1982) met at boarding school whilst sheltering from a thunderstorm. They discovered their shared interest in ponies and the moors and decided to write a story together using the works of Arthur Ransome as a model. The girls, then aged 14 and 15, kept their project a secret from everyone and vowed 'to cut off all our hair if the book was not finished' by the time they took their Higher Certificate in July of 1937.

They worked together in a very methodical way; working out the entire plot and becoming familiar with the characters before they begun to write. During the winter term they worked on alternate chapters and then swapped them over to edit. By the Easter term they had completed their story ‘by children, about children, for children’.

They worked together in a very methodical way; working out the entire plot and becoming familiar with the characters before they begun to write. During the winter term they worked on alternate chapters and then swapped them over to edit. By the Easter term they had completed their story ‘by children, about children, for children’.

Katherine and Pamela also wrote Escape to Persia in 1938 and Oxus in summer in 1939 and Crowns in 1947. Pamela continued to write throughout her life and married John Bell who was a literary editor for the Oxford University Press.

Far-Distant Oxus
Escape to Persia
Oxus in Summer
Crowns

The Times obituary of Pamela’s husband, John Bell.