PBOTD 22nd September: Monica Edwards - The Midnight Horse

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Having rounded up all the Punchbowl Farm books, I'm now turning my attentions to the Romney Marsh series books which I haven't yet featured. Today's book is The Midnight Horse (1949). This is one of the most pony-orientated of Monica Edwards' books. It was the fourth book she wrote, and was the last one of hers to be illustrated by Anne Bullen.


Rissa, Tamzin and Meryon become involved in the hunt for a stolen racehorse. This is a good and exciting plot, but for me the huge attraction of this book was Tamzin's ability to sculpt model horses out of plasticene. I was absolutely fascinated by this. I am not one who reads and who sees the scenes described in her mind's eye, but I did see these horses. I longed to have Tamzin's ability, and read and re-read the book, almost as if the more times I read it, the more likely it would be that her ability would magically transfer itself to me.


Sadly it didn't. Even more sadly, Tamzin's amazing ability disappears after this book, never to be seen again. I wonder if this reflected a passing interest on the part of Monica Edward's daughter, on whom elements of both Tamzin and Lindsay are drawn, or whether Monica Edwards became bored of the whole thing herself.


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The Romney Marsh Series
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
More on Monica Edwards
Everything you ever wanted to know on Monica Edwards and her books: John Allsup's site

Comments

Christina Wilsdon said…
How fun! Makes me want to read the book just to see those plasticine scenes...since that's all some of us horse-crazy girls ever got to have. I remember marveling over Velvet's paper horses in National Velvet too and thinking how clever she was.
22 September 2014 at 15:33
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