Anna Sewell’s only book, ‘Black Beauty’ was published in 1877, just months before her death. Told through the eyes of a horse (one of the first novels ever to use this narrative device) it has since sold 50 million copies worldwide.
Left disabled after an accident in her youth, I love how, for Anna, Black Beauty becomes the conduit for the free rein of her imagination. Her body might have been partially paralysed but her inner life was one of unrestricted liberty embodied in the spirit of a horse, with all of its power and galloping speed.
