Like most girls her age, Poppy McKeever has always wanted a pony of her own. Now it looks like her dream is finally coming true. The family’s new house on the moor comes with its very own pony. Poppy can’t believe her luck. New friendships develop, exciting adventures await, and everything seems perfect. Until her stepmother Caroline starts acting weirdly, and Poppy’s adrenaline-junkie brother Charlie is convinced he’s spotted a big cat on the loose. And then there’s the flash of grey in the woods.

It is 1842 and Maria Merryweather, a 13-year-old orphan is on her journey to the mysterious Moonacre Manor. There she finds herself in a crumbling house of secrets and mystery in a world caught up in time. Maria discovers that she is the last Moon Princess and she has only until the next full moon to undo the misdeeds of her ancestors and save the Moonacre estate from disappearing forever.

"I write this sitting at the kitchen sink" is the first line of a novel about love, sibling rivalry, and a bohemian existence in a crumbling castle in the middle of nowhere. Cassandra Mortmin's journal records her fadingly glamorous stepmother, her beautiful, wistful older sister, and the man to whom they owe both their isolation and poverty: Father. The author of one experimental novel, and a minor cause celebre, he has since suffered from writer's block and is determined to drag his family down with him.

Charlie's racehorse has certainly earned the name Noble Warrior: he won the Derby against all odds and bested a bunch of nasty kidnappers. But now Noddy is facing his greatest challenge yet. Charlie's best friend Polly is still recovering from an accident that left her almost paralysed. But Polly has a real talent with horses - and she and Charlie are determined not to let it go to waste. Can the two best friends find a way to make Polly's equestrian dreams come true, and forge a new path for the racehorse who wouldn't gallop?  

Puffin presents the unabridged downloadable audiobook edition of The Racehorse Who Wouldn't Gallop, written and read by Clare Balding. Charlie Bass is a horse-mad nine-year-old who dreams of owning her own pony. So when her eccentric parents announce that they are going to buy a racehorse, Charlie is thrilled. The horse they buy, Noble Warrior, looks the part: strong, fit and healthy. There's just one problem - he won't gallop.