IN an age when most of us travel around on four wheels, a West Somerset artist has spent the past two years celebrating a time when four legs were far more important than anything with an engine.

Renowned children’s illustrator Jill Newton, whose previous work has been published internationally - and even turned into a children’s musical performed by a symphony orchestra - has just launched a book called Around the World on 80 Horses.

"It’s easy to forget that the horse has helped shape the world that we live in today," says Jill, who lives in Watchet. "The new book explores the worlds of equines and finds out how they developed into the most adaptable and revered animal on the planet.

"My aim as I worked on the book during the lockdowns has been to allow children and adults alike to trot around the globe discovering fantastic facts about this incredible beast as they go."

Jill, who has written and illustrated more than 20 children’s books and illustrated in excess of 150, has been published by Bloomsbury, Harper Collins, Scholastic, Walker and Orchard Books. Her talents have also been commissioned to illustrate other people’s work and also give life to her own creations, but she says that the new book is one which is very close to her heart.

"From riding muddy ponies bareback across the fields, to galloping racehorses in the early morning mist on the Quantock Hills, horses have played a large part in my life," says Jill.

"When I dreamed up a plan to create this book the general idea was to have lots of little nuggets of information which children could absorb and enjoy and impress their friends with. I love the idea of giving children - and adults, for that matter - amazing anecdotes that no-one else knows.

"Around the World on 80 Horses is not just for pony-mad children, although it is targeted at seven to 12-year-olds. I also designed this book to appeal to adults who, I hope, will not only be enthralled by the 200-plus colour illustrations but might also be fascinated by the brave and bizarre acts horses and ponies have performed over the centuries."

The book shows how a horse can sleep standing up - Jill even meets a horse which dances to the beat of tom-toms. The great range of illustrations also focuses on unlikely beasts such as the seven-headed horse of Indian folklore and the fierce man-killer steed known as Bucephallus, which was tamed by Alexander the Great.

There are even simple instructions teaching readers how to draw their own horses and make origami ponies.

Around the World on 80 Horses is available priced £15 paperback or £20 hardback from Jill’s online shop at www.jillnewton.co.uk