Neddy: The autobiography of a donkey

"Neddy" by Charles Welsh is a children's animal autobiography written in the early 20th century. Told in the first person by a donkey, it blends adventure and moral reflection as Neddy navigates kindness and cruelty, work and temptation, and the hope of reunion with a beloved young mistress named Annie. Readers can expect a gentle, instructive narrative about compassion toward animals and the consequences of honesty and deceit.

The opening of this tale follows a curious young donkey content in a sunny field with his mother, befriended by the kindly gardener Old Thomas, and then won over by the affection of Annie when her family returns home. Neddy learns to trust, accepts the bridle under Annie’s patient hand, but soon bolts in a burst of independence, only to be found after a night of misadventure by a village boy and returned to his overjoyed mistress. Early lessons bite: he fakes lameness to avoid a hated stop and is found out, then later truly suffers with a stone in his hoof, underscoring the cost of deceit. A lively interlude paints the bustle of country fairs and a comic “performing donkey” story. Trouble deepens when a spiteful servant, Richard, mistreats him; after tossing the boy in a market squabble, Neddy is seized by a rough man, crudely disguised, hobbled, and driven into peddler life. Small kindness comes from a child who feeds him, but he is soon hauling wares through grim industrial towns and ferrying fairground riders, growing tougher yet better groomed, and clinging to one hope: that someone, somewhere, will recognize him and lead him home.