Elyne Mitchell’s interest in horses began when she was a young girl. Her father commanded mounted troops in the First World War and sent pictures to his family of men and horses winding through the desert sands of the Middle East, fascinating her as a child. On returning to Australia, her father taught her to ride and she grew to love and respect these proud, strong animals.
When she married, she moved to her husband Tom’s cattle station, below the Snowy Mountains. He was the Australian and New Zealand Downhill Ski Champion and Elyne soon learnt to ski herself. Her first books, written for adults, were about the Snowy Mountains and the work of the cattle station.
Elyne wrote The Silver Brumby for the eldest of her four children, and so began the famous series. A film of the same title was released in 1993 to popular acclaim, and a BBC animated television series about the silver brumbies has been produced.