She worked it between the years of 18, already in her fifties. The inhumane treatment of horses she observed inspired her to write Black Beauty.

She grew to love them and cared deeply about their treatment, as well as that of all of animals. Having become dependent on horse-drawn carriages to get around, Anna developed an empathy for horses. When she returned, she continued to follow her parents from one place to another, including Wick and Bath. Anna’s health didn’t improve, so she travelled to Europe to continue to seek treatment. Sewell’s books was Talks with Mamma, a collection of motherly advice she shared with Anna and her brother, Philip. She also worked with her mother on other social issues including abolition and temperance.Īnna’s mother had long been a guiding force in her life. Mary Sewall wrote a a series of children’s books with evangelical themes, and Anna helped edit them. Anna followed her mother’s lead in leaving the Quaker community in favor of the Church of England.

In 1936, when she was 16, her father took a job in Brighton, hoping that its warmer climate would have a positive effect on her health. For the rest of her life she was unable to stand or walk for very long, and endured a great deal of pain.Īnna’s declining health, in tandem with the family’s declining fortunes, compelled them to keep moving from place to place. The treatment was shoddy, and she never fully recovered. Two years later, she fell while walking home from school and broke both of her ankles. A permanent injuryĪt age 12, Anna began going to school for the first time after the family moved to Stoke Newington. The family’s precarious financial situation compelled the children to stay with their grandparents from time to time, and they moved around the country frequently.

Her father was a shopkeeper and bank clerk whose unstable income created great hardship for the family.Īnna and her brother Phillip were mainly educated at home by their mother.

Her mother, Mary Wright Sewell (who outlived her daughter by a few years) was herself an author of poetry and children’s books. But what a book it is, a classic that has enthralled generations of readers with its message of compassion toward animals.Īnna was born in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk in England, into a family that was devoutly Quaker. Anna Sewell (Ma– April 25, 1878) was a British novelist who had only one published book - Black Beauty- to her name.

Ann sewell