PBOTD 23rd June: K M Peyton - The Edge of the Cloud

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This is another PBOTD which is not a pony book: not even remotely. There are no horses in it, but there are plenty of machines. Flambards, the first book in the series, saw Christina learning to ride, and hunt, and learn to love horses.

Set against the obsession of her Uncle Russell and cousin Mark for hunting is the obsession of her other cousin, Will, with aeroplanes.

OUP, 1969, 1st ed, illus Victor Ambrus
At the end of Flambards, the world of the horse is sharply contrasted with the new world of machines: Christina and Will elope in a Rolls-Royce; Mark tries to catch them on his horse, but fails. It is a new world; one in which machines (and war) destroy Will, as Mark predicted. 

Puffin, pb, 1977
 The Edge of the Cloud  is a heart-rending book to read. A lesser author would have had Will survive, but K M Peyton is not a lesser author. Neither is Christina a lesser heroine. She survives, and claws her way back to some sort of happiness.

Puffin, 1987

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