About the author
Monica Le Doux Edwards (nee Newton) was born on 8 November 1912 in Belper, Derbyshire. One of four children, her father, the Revd Harry Newton was a vicar. In 1927 he accepted the living of Rye Harbour, in East Sussex. Although her brothers and sister were educated (her brothers with a tutor and her sister at boarding school), Monica initially was not, and she took full advantage of her school-free state, roaming the marsh and befriending the fishermen and villagers, who later became part of her Romney Marsh series
In 1933, Monica married Bill Edwards, and in 1947 they and their two children, Shelley and Sean, moved to Pitlands Farm in Surrey, which Monica bought at an auction when her attention was perhaps more on the book she was reading at the time. The house was neglected: “There’s no water, no light, no drains, no bathroom, and the Other Place is at the bottom of the garden,” and the land was not a great deal better. In The Unsought Farm Monica describes how they slowly reclaimed the land and made the house habitable. The farm, re-named Punchbowl Farm, was to provide the inspiration for the Punchbowl Farm series. Unlike a lot of Monica fans, I far prefer the Punchbowl Farm series, probably because they were closer to my own experience. Like Lindsey, I wanted things to remain the same. I was devastated when my grandparents sold off for housing the small field and stables where we had played for days on end as children; though I could see why they felt they had to.
The books form two series: the Punchbowl Farm series about the Thornton family and Romney Marsh, featuring Tamzin and her friends Rissa, Roger and Meryon. The books are not really pony books: they don’t follow the usual pony book format focusing on looking after the pony, schooling it and going in for gymkhanas. The ponies are often integral to the story: Cascade, for example, performs an heroic role in Storm Ahead, and the ponies are used to help patrol the boundaries in No Entry, but the real interest of the stories is in how the characters react to the events going on around them. Monica Edwards never patronised her characters or her readers; she understood the tensions that happen in a family, and between friends, and set them brilliantly in the settings she obviously loved.
The majority of Monica Edwards’ books were published by Collins. Many of the Punchbowl Farm and Romney Marsh books were also published by Armada, who abridged some (but not all) of the stories. Storm Ahead and The White Riders were published by Puffin. There were also Children’s Book Club editions of some titles, and John Goodchild published (revised) editions. On a more hopeful note for those of us who have yet to find all the books, Girls Gone By are reprinting all of Monica Edwards’ works.
Finding the books
Although Girls Gone By are re-publishing, even these titles go out of print, so it’s best to pounce immediately they’re published. Once out of print, these reprints become expensive. Collecting Monica Edwards is alas a pricey business, and it’s impossible to be precise about how hard or otherwise a title is to find. I’ve attempted a fairly broad-brush categorisation.
Very hard to find: A Wind is Blowing, The Wild One, The Nightbird, Storm Ahead (though paperbacks are cheaper). Dolphin SummerHard to find: (as original hardbacks) Fire in the Punchbowl, White Riders, The Midnight Horse, Operation Seabird, Spirit of the Punchbowl, Punchbowl Midnight, Cargo of Horses, Punchbowl Harvest, Joan Goes Farming, Strangers to the Marsh, Under the Rose, The Hoodwinkers, The Outsider, The Cownappers, No Going Back
Reasonable: the John Goodchild hardback reprints; The Nightbird – Armada pb, Dolphin Summer – Armada pb, Summer of the Great Secret (Collins Seagull), Black Hunting Whip in its various hardback versions; Hidden in a Dream (Evergreen); The Wanderer; No Entry, Frenchman’s Secret, The Outsider (other hb versions), Killer Dog
Easy to find: most of the Armada paperbacks are reasonably easy to find, though they’re not now as cheap as they once were. The GGB paperbacks are easy to find in the year or two after publication, but as soon as they go out of print, prices rise. CP and Collins Seagull editions of Wish for a Pony. Collins Seagull No Mistaking Corker. Rennie Goes Riding (apart from the original hardback) .
Links
John Allsup’s Monica Edwards site alas appears to have died with him
The Wikipedia entry on Monica Edwards has an interesting critique of her works, as does the Australian Collecting Books and Magazines site.
Girls Gone By are republishing Monica Edwards’ works.
Series
Romney Marsh
Wish for a Pony
The Summer of the Great Secret
The Midnight Horse
The White Riders
Cargo of Horses
Hidden in a Dream
Storm Ahead
No Entry
The Nightbird
Operation Seabird
Strangers to the Marsh
No Going Back
The Hoodwinkers
Dolphin Summer
A Wind is Blowing
Romney March Series Reading Order
Wish for a Pony
Summer of the Great Secret
The Midnight Horse
The White Riders
Cargo of Horses
Strangers to the Marsh
Hidden in a Dream
No Entry
The Nightbird
Storm Ahead
Operation Seabird
(Storm Ahead – the end)
No Going Back
The Hoodwinkers
Dolphin Summer
A Wind is Blowing
This is the reading order worked out by Brian Parks in his book Romney Marsh Companion, GGB, 2006
Punchbowl Farm
No Mistaking Corker
Black Hunting Whip
Punchbowl Midnight
Spirit of Punchbowl Farm
The Wanderer
Punchbowl Harvest
Frenchman’s Secret
The Cownappers
The Outsider
Fire in the Punchbowl
The Wild One
Bibliography
Wish for a Pony
Collins, London, 1947, illus Anne Bullen, 159 pp.
Children’s Press, 1956
Collins Laurel & Gold, 1957
Armada, pb, 1963
Children’s Press, 1968
Collins, Pony Library, 1973
Goodchild, Wendover, 1984 (revised)
Tamzin gets her pony Cascade.
No Mistaking Corker
Collins, London, 1947, illus Anne Bullen
Collins, 1956
Collins Seagull, 1962, illus Anne Bullen
Armada pb, 1965
Reprinted 1971 in The Vanguard Book
The Thornton family go off on a caravan trip, drawn by a brown carthorse mare. You would have thought that there was only one brown carthorse mare about, but you would be wrong.
The Summer of the Great Secret
Collins, London, 1948, illus Anne Bullen, 256 pp
Collins, Laurel & Gold, 1958 (abridged)
Collins, Seagull, 1963
Armada, pb, 1965
Tamzin and Rissa spend another summer holiday about the Marsh, learning Jim Deck’s secrets, and earning money so Rissa can buy her chestnut Siani.
The Midnight Horse
Collins, London, 1949, illus Anne Bullen
Collins, Crown Library, 1954
In Three Great Pony Stories, Collins, 1972
Goodchild, Wendover, 1984 (Revised)
Tamzin and Rissa meet Meryon Fairbrass, and togethey they become involved in the hunt for a stolen racehorse. This is also the book in which Tamzin discovers her talent for sculpture in plasticene.
Black Hunting Whip
Collins, London, 1950, illus Geoffrey Whittam
Transworld (Scottie Books), pb, 1956
Armada, pb, 1964
Collins Pony Library, 1974
Goodchild, Wendover, 1984 (Revised)
Mrs Thornton acquires Punchbowl Farm at auction and the Thornton family move there. The children find the diary of a long dead boy, telling the story of a Black Hunting Whip. They try to find the whip to carry it to victory at Guildford Show.
The White Riders
Collins, London, 1950, illus Geoffrey Whittam, 254 pp.
Puffin, pb, 1956
Goodchild, Wendover, 1984 (Revised)
Tamzin and Rissa are keeping house for the Merrows, when they learn some city men plan to build a holiday camp on the Marshes. Determined to stop them, they disguise themselves as the dreaded White Riders, and career across the marsh at night.
Punchbowl Midnight
Collins, London, 1951, illus Charles Tunnicliffe
Chlidren’s Book Club, 1953
Collins, 1956
Armada, pb, 1963
Goodchild, Aylesbury, 1986 (Revised)
Punchbowl Midnight is one of the first calves Dion has bred, but she escapes. The deer threaten more than Midnight, and Lindsay, and Tamzin who has come to stay, try to keep them away from the fields.
The Spirit of Punchbowl Farm
Collins, London, 1952, illus Joan Wanklyn, 192 pp.
Armada, pb, 1963
Goodchild, Aylesbury, 1986 (Revised)
The ancient yew tree is threatened with being cut down at Punchbowl Farm. It is in the way, but Lindsay loves it. It holds, she thinks, the spirit of the farm, and she is determined to find a way of saving it, even if it means selling her hair to raise money to fence in the tree.
Cargo of Horses
Collins, London, 1951, illus Geoffrey Whittam
Junior Fontanas, pb, 1955
Armada, pb, 1965
Collins Pony Library, 1972
Goodchild, Wendover, 1984 (Revised)
The Romney Marsh people learn that the cargo of the white ship is horses bound for slaughter, and they are determined to rescue them.
Hidden in a Dream
Collins, London, 1952, illus Geoffrey Whittam
Children’s Book Club, 1953
Collins Evergreen, 1966, John Goodchild, 1986 (revised)
Girls Gone By, 2006
Meryon hits his head in an accident, and loses his memory about the entire incident. They are all sleeping out in the Martello Tower that summer, but because of Meryon’s bad dreams, they are all disturbed. It looks as if only Meryon can solve the mystery of the missing stranger.
The Wanderer
Collins, London, 1953, illus Joan Wanklyn
Children’s Book Club Collins, London, 1957
Armada, pb, 1968
Lindsay’s colt, Chalice, proves that he is an excellent escape artist, and then it looks as if he might have caused a serious accident.
Storm Ahead
Collins, London, 1953, illus Geoffrey Whittam, 190 pp.
Puffin, paperback, 1957
Girls Gone By, pb, 2005
Based on a real incident, a great storm hits the coast, and the village is flooded. The lifeboat is launched, but the rescue goes tragically wrong. Lindsay has an encounter with a mad dog, and Tamzin has to embark on a dangerous night time ride to fetch the doctor.
Punchbowl Harvest
Collins, London, 1954, illus Joan Wanklyn
Armada, pb, 1966
Chivers, 1974
Harvest at the Punchbowl seems fraught with potential disaster: the weather destroys their work, and Dion’s pet fox Toddy is suspected of massacring the local farmer’s chickens.
No Entry
Collins, London, 1954, illus Geoffrey Whittam
Children’s Book Club, 1956
Armada, pb, 1964
Collins Pony Library, 1972
Girls Gone By, 2005
Foot and mouth threatens the Marsh, and the Merrows’ farm is threatened. After they end up staying there, Tamzin and Rissa et al find they have to run the farm and patrol the boundaries.
Joan Goes Farming
Collins, London, 1954
Bodley Head, London, 1961 (as part of their Career Novel series)
Joan decides she wants to take up farming as a career, and after some work experience at a Surrey farm when she is taken complete advantage of by the farmer’s rather useless wife, goes off to college. She just about meets romance along the way, and in the end has to decide whether to marry or go off and start her career.
The Nightbird
Collins, London, 1955, illus Geoffrey Whittam
Collins, 1956
Armada, pb, 1963
Girls Gone By, Bath, pb, 2006
The fishermen of Westling find their fishing grounds are being poached by French boats. Tamzin and friends decide to turn Jim’s old trawler into a ghost shop to frighten the French boats away.
Frenchman’s Secret
Collins, London, 1956, illus Geoffrey Whittam
Children’s Book Club, 1958
Armada, pb, 1965
Ruth and Roy have come to live at the Mill House, and meet the Punchbowl Farm people. When Lindsay finds an old map, she wonders if there is treasure still buried in the dam which keeps water back above the Mill House. Roy decides to blow a small hole in the dam to find out.
Rennie Goes Riding
Bodley Head, London, 1956, cover
illus Sheila Rose
Bodley Head, 1961 (Career series)
Knight, pb, 1968, 1973,1979
Rennie only wants to work with horses, and at last she gets the chance to train, but then finds she has to battle with her nerves.
Operation Seabird
Collins, London, 1957, illus Geoffrey Whittam
Children’s Book Club, 1958, 256 pp.
Girls Gone By, pb, 2007
Tamzin and Rissa discover many seabirds are dying, clogged with oil. They form the Seabirds Rescue League, and start an operation to clean the birds up.
Strangers to the Marsh
Collins, London, 1957, illus Geoffrey Whittam
Children’s Book Club, 1958
John Goodchild, Aylesbury, 1986 (Revised)
Girls Gone By, pb, 2007
A rare bird, the hoopoe, nests at the castle. Jim Decks destroys the baker’s cakes after Tamzin distracts him, and she and her friends decide to bail Jim out by founding a newspaper, The Westling News.
The Cownappers
Collins, London, 1958, illus Geoffrey Whittam
Children’s Book Club, 1960 (cover identical to original but with no publisher’s name to spine)
Armada, pb, 1964
The Punchbowl Family have a paying guest called Jewel (Bijou de la Couronne) – a cow who is almost black. It turns out she has been cownapped from France, and the Thorntons end up tracking down her rightful owner and returning her via Westling and Jim Deck’s fishing smack in a strictly illegal cross channel voyage.
Killer Dog
Collins, London, 1959, illus Sheila Rose
Children’s Book Club, 1961
Portway Junior Reprints, 1971
This is set on Romney Marsh, but isn’t a Tamzin story. A killer dog is attacking the local sheep, and suspicion falls on two dogs: Glen, and Lion. The Hawkes family are determined to prove Glen is innocent, and wait out on the Marsh to try and discover which dog is the attacker.
No Going Back
Collins, London, 1960, illus Geoffrey Whittam, 192 pp.
Collins Evergreen, 1966
Girls Gone By, 2008
This is the story in which Tamzin and Meryon’s relationship takes a step forward. Rissa finds this hard to handle, as they are drawn into Jim Deck’s latest misdeeds.
The Outsider
Collins, London, 1961, illus Geoffrey Whittam
Children’s Book Club, 1962
Armada, pb, 1969
The Romney Marsh people come to stay at the Punchbowl. A wild deer has found its way in to the Punchbowl Jersey herd, and they have to try and catch it, but it is not easy.
The Hoodwinkers
Collins, London, 1962, illus Geoffrey Whittam
Children’s Book Club, 1962
Girls Gone By, Bath, 2008
Jim Decks is up to no good again, and the four decide to woo him away from swizzling Americans with tales of his boat belonging to William the Conqueror by persuading himto take trippers out to see the ruins of the drowned village of Winklesea. This would be a lot easier, however, if Jim’s boat had an engine.
Dolphin Summer
Collins, London, 1963, illus Geoffrey Whittam
Children’s Book Club, 1963
Armada, pb, 1966
A dolphin rescues Tamzin when she gets into trouble on a midnight swim and she is sure it is the same one who turns up near the beach. Then the papers get to hear of the dolphin, and that brings yet more unwelcome interest in the shape of people who want to capture her for an aqua circus.
Fire in the Punchbowl
Collins, London, 1965, illus Geoffrey Whittam
Collins, London, 1969, Evergreen Lib, 190 pp. Jacket Eileen Walton
Children’s Book Club, 1965
Armada, pb, 1967
Roger and Rissa are staying. There is a heatwave and a fire starts in the Punchbowl. Soon the farm itself, as well as the animals, are threatened. The relationship between Roger and Lindsay moves on.
The Wild One
Collins, London, 1967, illus Geoffrey Whittam
Girls Gone By, 2010
Lindsay and Roger are together for the holidays in this last of the Punchbowl Farm series. The pug marks of a puma are found around the Punchbowl, and this seems a threat to their livestock. Lindsay finds the puma cub after its mother has been shot and is determined to save it. This story confirms the relationship between Lindsay and Roger, but she makes tremendous demands on him in her quest to look after the wild cat.
Under the Rose
Collins, London, 1968, illus Richard Kennedy
Children’s Book Club, 1968
Bruce is the only one who can manage a dangerous stallion, and when it looks as if Bruce will be charged with murder, he flees, taking the stallion with him. He finds sanctuary at a deserted country house, where four children find him. Then the mysterious boy Charles appears, with a strange story of hunting for his real mother and father.
A Wind is Blowing
Collins, London, 1969. Cover Alex Jawdokimov
Girls Gone By, Bath, 2009, pb.
Meryon intervenes in a robbery, with catastrophic consequences, as he is blinded. Meryon resents his blindness bitterly, and it threatens his relationship with Tamzin. She fights back, and starts a tape correspondence with him, and together they train a guide dog, though at last there is hope in the shape of an operation in Spain.
Short Stories
Sure Magic, illus Raymond Sheppard
Pony Club Annual no. 6
It’s sure magic, to wish where a foal has been born. Paul finds the place where Calluna’s foal has been born, and finds something very unexpected indeed.
The Great Horse, illus William Stobbs
Pony Club Annual, no 11
An historical story, telling the story of a horse during the Civil War.
And also: (summarised from John Allsupp’s former website)
The Irresponsible Rescue, illus Anne Bullen
Collins Magazine, 1948, reprinted in Collins Annual
Serena Bathover’s Horses, illus Molly Wilson
Collins Magazine, 1948, reprinted Collins Magazine Annual, 1949
The Horse That Came From the Sea in By Special Request, ed Noel Streatfeild, Collins, 1953
A Sort of Miracle, illus Sheila Rose
Collins Children’s Annual, 1952
The Champions, illus James Hunt
Wilfred Pickles Gift Book, Chambers, 1959
Bird in the Hand
Collins Children’s Annual, 1959
Such a Pony was Gipsy, illus Maurice Tulloch
Collins Children’s Annual, 1953
The Telegram, illus Sheila Rose
Collins Girls’ Annual, 1955 & Crackerjack Book for Girls
Caesar’s Fire, illus Eric Wade
Collins Children’s Annual, 1963
Non Fiction
The Unsought Farm
(Michael Joseph, 1954)
The Cats of Punchbowl Farm
(Michael Joseph, 1964)
The Badgers of Punchbowl Farm
(Michael Joseph, 1966)
The Valley and the Farm
(Michael Joseph, 1971)
Badger Valley
(Michael Joseph, 1976)
Books about Monica Edwards
Brian Parks: The Punchbowl Companion
Brian Parks, 2004, 209pp.
Girls Gone By, Bath, 2012, revised.
Brian Parks: The Monica Edwards Romney Marsh Companion
Girls Gone By, Bath, 2006 – revised and extended, 311 pp.
Brian Parks: Monica Edwards: the Authorised Autobiography
Girls Gone By, Bath, 2010, 203 pp.
