The story is set on the fictional island of Clerinel in the English Channel in 1940. Its location is somewhere between the Channel Islands and England. The Germans have invaded the Channel Islands but on Clerinel life is continuing as normal despite the threat of invasion due to the island's strategic importance.
13 year old Caroline and her 14 year old brother Mick are enjoying their summer holidays with their father and younger brother Thomas at their home on Clerinel. They are enthusiastic members of the local Pony club, which has just moved to a new headquarters in a cave near the sea. Peter Beaumarchais is the Pony Club President and he holds a fancy dress/masked carnival party (on horseback of course). Caroline and Mick don't like dressing up and they attend reluctantly. However in the middle of the party they learn that the Germans are about to invade Clerinel and they are to be evacuated. In the confusion of the evacuation Caroline and Mick get left behind on the quay while their father and Thomas sail to England. They return to their home but soon realise that they cannot stay there as it has been requistioned by a German officer and his granddaughter. They move to the Pony Club's HQ in the cave, taking Mick's pony Punch with them. They are assisted by Peter Beaumarchais whose family decided to stay on Clerinel and whose father tries to arrange for them to be evacuated. A few days later they realise that they can be of great assistance to the British intelligence service in foiling German plans for an invasion of Britain. Despite being the title of the book, Caroline's pony Dinah doesn't play a huge role in the story. Being a children's book there is a happy ending.
The book was written in 1940 when the threat of a German invasion was very real and the outcome of the war was by no means certain. The book is a cross between a Famous Five adventure and the dozens of pony stories I read as a child. It does feel a bit dated in some of the attitudes to social class but it is still a good yarn.
Clerinel is a fictional island but the descriptions match the rockier parts of the coast of Jersey and Guernsey. 6/10
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