Jump!

Etta has to leave the beautiful house she has shared with her husband to live in a hideous bungalow in the village of Willowwood, where strained circumstances cause her to be at the beck and call of her grown-up children and their horrendous brats. Without a husband, friends or the home she loved, Etta’s life seems bleak – until one night she comes across a terrified, horribly injured horse abandoned in the wood. Etta takes the horse home and tends
her wounds, and as the horse recovers she proves herself to be a massively talented steeplechaser.

By now named Mrs Wilkinson by Etta and the other adoring villagers, most of whom have rallied round to help the stricken animal, a syndicate is formed to send her to the run-down training stables of Marius Rowe, a once successful trainer who has fallen on hard times.

Before long Mrs Wilkinson becomes the darling of the racing world. Ridden fearlessly by the lovely Amber Lloyd Foxe, she starts to earn the members of the syndicate both money and fame. But darker forces are at work, especially in the shape of rival trainer Ralph Harvey-Holden whom many suspect of causing the horse’s terrible injuries in the first place. A near-disaster causes Mrs Wilkinson to move to the stables of Rupert Campbell-Black, one of racing’s most successful owner/trainers. Meanwhile Etta has attracted the attention of several men in the village, including Valent Edwards, wildly attractive ex-premier league footballer whose grand house marches with Etta’s bungalow, and Seth Bainton, gorgeous actor of fame and notoriety.

Tragedies, victories and dastardly plots uncovered come together in an enthralling climax at Aintree, where in the heady atmosphere of the Grand National Mrs Wilkinson must finally prove her worth.