Tag Archives: Anne McCaffrey

Fantasy writer Anne McCaffrey passed away last night. I am not a reader of fantasy in general, but some of her books hold honored — and permanent — places on my bookshelf. Her Dragonriders of Pern series is *the* classic for novels about dragons, but none of those is the novel I remember best.

In the 80s, Ms. McCaffrey wrote a little-known horse story called (on this side of the Pond) The Lady. It’s set in Ireland in the early 1970s and follows the lives of the Carradyne family. I was, I think, only a few years older than Catriona, the protagonist, when I read it for the first time, and I was just as horse mad as she. I’ve owned multiple copies of this book. I’ve read it so many times that my copies tend to fall apart. The last time, I ordered several copies, because I was afraid it might go out of print. The story is an old friend, a best friend.

Thank you, Anne, for the dragons and the horses. As a friend of mine noted, a Golden dragon has gone Between….