Joanna Cannan facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Joanna Cannan
Born	(1896-05-27)27 May 1896 Oxford, England
Died	22 April 1961(1961-04-22) (aged 64) Blandford Forum, Dorset, England
Resting place	Fairmile cemetery, Henley-on-Thames
Nationality	British
Occupation	Author
Spouse(s)	Harold Pullein-Thompson
Children	Denis Cannan; Josephine, Diana and Christine Pullein-Thompson
Parent(s)	Charles Cannan Mary Wedderburn
Relatives	May Cannan, sister Charlotte Popescu, granddaughter

Joanna Maxwell Cannan (1896–1961) was a British writer. She was famous for her pony books and detective novels. Her pony books were mostly for children. She came from a family where many people loved to write!

Life of Joanna Cannan

Joanna Cannan was the youngest daughter of Charles Cannan. He was a Dean at Trinity College, Oxford and worked for Oxford University Press. Her mother was Mary Wedderburn. Joanna is perhaps best known as the mother of four writers: Josephine, Diana, Christine Pullein-Thompson, and Denis Cannan. Her sister, May Cannan, was also a poet. Joanna was also a grandmother to Charlotte Popescu.

Growing Up in Oxford

Joanna grew up in Oxford, England. She really loved Scotland. Her family often went there for holidays. Scotland was part of her family history too. Her ancestors were involved in big events like the Jacobite rising. The wild areas of Roshven in Scotland must have seemed very exciting compared to quiet Oxford. The Cannan children apparently read lots of adventure stories for boys!

World War I and Family Life

During World War I, Joanna became a nurse. She was a VAD nurse. Her friends Carola Oman and Georgette Heyer also worked there. Joanna met her future husband, Captain Harold J "Cappy" Pullein-Thompson, while nursing in Oxford. They got married in 1918.

After marrying, she became Joanna Cannan Pullein-Thompson. But she kept writing and publishing her books as Joanna Cannan. Her husband was badly hurt during the war. This meant Joanna became the main person earning money for their family. She wrote a new book almost every year until she passed away. After they married, the couple moved to Wimbledon.

Encouraging Young Writers

Joanna didn't like traditional schooling very much. She encouraged her daughters to write and to be independent. However, she did have some strict house rules. One rule was: "Don't talk horses at meals." This rule was quite hard for her daughters to follow, especially since they loved horses and later became famous for their pony books!

Joanna's health began to decline in the early 1950s. She passed away in 1961 in Dorset, England. She is buried in Fairmile cemetery, Henley-on-Thames.

Joanna Cannan's Books

Most of Joanna Cannan's pony books were published before or during World War II. After the war, she started writing detective novels. She felt that the world she used to write about was changing. She also contributed stories to magazines during her life.

A painting and some photos of Joanna Cannan are kept at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

Pony Novels for Children

These are some of the popular pony books Joanna Cannan wrote for young readers:

• A Pony for Jean (1936)
• We Met Our Cousins (1937). This book was republished in 2006. It included a special biography of Joanna written by her daughter, Josephine.
• Another Pony for Jean (1938)
• London Pride (1939)
• More Ponies for Jean (1943)
• They Bought Her A Pony (1944)
• Hamish: The Story of a Shetland Pony (1944)
• I Wrote A Pony Book (1950)
• Gaze at the Moon (1957)
• The Vanguard Book of Ponies and Riding (1966). She wrote this with another author.

Other Novels and Collections

Joanna Cannan also wrote many other novels and collections for adults:

• The Tripled Crown. (A book of English, Scotch and Irish verse for the age of six to sixteen) (co-author) (1908)
• The Misty Valley (1922)
• Wild Berry Wine (1925)
• The Lady Of the Heights (1926)
• Sheila Both Ways (1928)
• The Simple Pass On (1929)
• Ashes of Roses. (Serialised in the Daily Courier, 1929)
• No Walls of Jasper (1930)
• Orphan of Mars (1930)
• The Hour of the Angel: Ithuriel's Hour (1931)
• High Table (1931), a funny book about Oxford University
• Snow in Harvest (1932)
• North Wall (1933)
• Under Proof (1934)
• The Hills Sleep On (1935)
• A Hand to Burn (1936)
• Frightened Angels (1936)
• Princes in the Land (1936)
• Pray Do Not Venture (1937)
• They Rang Up the Police (1939)
• Idle Apprentice (1940)
• Death at The Dog (1940)
• Blind Messenger (1941)
• Little I Understood (1948)
• Murder Included (also known as A Taste of Murder or Poisonous Relations) (1950)
• And All I learned (1951)
• Body in the Beck (1952)
• Long Shadows (1955)
• People to be Found (1956)
• And Be a Villain (1958)
• All is Discovered (1962)

Short Stories

Here are some short stories she wrote:

• "Prodigal Son", Britannia and Eve, 1 March 1936
• "Cleverness Isn't Everything", Britannia and Eve, 1 March 1939
• "Love is of the Valley". Britannia and Eve, 1 April 1939

Non-fiction

• Oxfordshire (1952)