The Runaways A New and Original Story

The Runaways, A New and Original Story is a horse racing novel by Nat Gould (1857-1919). Like most of Gould’s extensive racing fiction output, the book combines specific racing material drawn from his personal knowledge of the English and Australian racing worlds with the romantic and dramatic plot ingredients his audience expected.

Gould had spent the 1880s and early 1890s in Australia working as a racing journalist for various Sydney and Melbourne newspapers before returning to England in 1895. By that point he had established the racing novel formula that he would continue producing for the next two and a half decades until his death in 1919. The novels appeared at a remarkable rate, with dozens published every few years across his career.

The Runaways uses a particular dramatic situation suggested by the title as the framework for the racing material. The exact nature of the runaway escape that gives the book its title would have provided the central plot motor while the racing scenes carried the technical interest his readers wanted.