Rereading 12: Monica Edwards part three
May. 5th, 2023 08:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
callmemadamHidden in a Dream (1952)
What a cover! A picture of Meryon lying unconscious with a head wound would hardly entice the young reader, you’d think. The book begins with him coming round, groggily making his way to the vicarage and collapsing. He has concussion.
This is a surprisingly domestic book. Tamzin is depressed because her father is swapping parishes with an East End clergyman for four weeks and she dreads the waste of the summer holidays. Ever the saint, Mr Grey comes up with an alternative plan: he will go to London alone while Mrs Grey and the children spend their time in a Martello tower. It has been inhabited before but I can’t imagine anything more uncomfortable! Surely, even in summer it would be cold? Mrs Grey is doubtful but decides that it’s possible, so an orgy of cleaning and whitewashing begins. Mother and Diccon will sleep in the tower room, the others in tents on the roof. A makeshift washing area is arranged but where did they go to the loo? Writers of this date seldom mention such important details.
While all this is going on a mystery develops. Old Jim tells Tamzin that an unfortunate pony has been left outside a pub all day in the heat with no water. There’s a tub cart with him and a box in the cart but no sign of the owner. The pony is taken to the vicarage to be cared for, the police are informed but there’s no sign of the owner and no missing person has been reported.
The move to the tower is successful and they make it quite homely. After a day or two, Meryon seems quite recovered, but can’t remember what happened to him. He seems fine but Tamzin is constantly hearing him shouting in his sleep. The other two don’t notice until one night it’s so bad she wakes them and they discuss what to do. Tamzin confides in her mother and the two visit their doctor to ask for advice. What is the best way to help Meryon? His accident turns out to be connected with the mysterious tub cart and all ends happily, with the bonus of the four friends finding that Roland, currently living at the vicarage, is a very decent sort and not the horror they had imagined. It’s odd that when Meryon is not quite himself, the others feel lost because they look to him as a leader. What? It’s Tamzin who comes up with all the mad ideas.
No Entry (1952)
This is all about an outbreak of foot and mouth disease which threatens Castle Farm. Tamzin and her friends are preparing for a camping holiday there when a letter from Mrs Merrow puts them off, saying the whole farm is in a state of siege. At first downhearted, Tamzin then thinks they could still go if they could find a way of disinfecting themselves, which they do. This seems highly irresponsible and Mike is not at all pleased to see them, saying they’d better not let his dad know they’re there. Then Mr Merrow has an accident. After having his arm stitched up by Meryon (minor surgery, now!) he doesn’t recover from his head injury. They virtually kidnap a doctor, then forcibly disinfect the poor man and the farmer is taken off to hospital, with his wife, for an operation. So, as in The White Riders, Tamzin and friends are in charge of the housekeeping, with the added duty of patrolling the boundaries to keep people away. Meryon is allowed a gun but unloaded. There are two trespassers, both apologetic but then the gypsies move back to the site they had in The Midnight Horse. They allow their lurchers to run around, refuse to heed Mike’s warnings and eventually, he shoots the dogs. Their revenge is to disappear with 100 of Mr Merrow’s best breeding ewes. The people at Castle Farm fail to find them until Jim Decks (who manages to know everything) sends them morse code messages by torch, telling them where to look. Sure enough, the ewes are found, dipped and returned to the farm. By this time the household is running out of many essential supplies. The all clear doesn’t come until the young ones are back at school (you can’t think their holidays were much fun, with so much stress and hard work). Mr Merrow is better and Mrs Merrow plans a big party, which she insists will only take place when everyone invited has been to church to give thanks. Really a book about the hardships of farming.
Storm Ahead is such a good book, it deserves a post to itself.
What a cover! A picture of Meryon lying unconscious with a head wound would hardly entice the young reader, you’d think. The book begins with him coming round, groggily making his way to the vicarage and collapsing. He has concussion.
This is a surprisingly domestic book. Tamzin is depressed because her father is swapping parishes with an East End clergyman for four weeks and she dreads the waste of the summer holidays. Ever the saint, Mr Grey comes up with an alternative plan: he will go to London alone while Mrs Grey and the children spend their time in a Martello tower. It has been inhabited before but I can’t imagine anything more uncomfortable! Surely, even in summer it would be cold? Mrs Grey is doubtful but decides that it’s possible, so an orgy of cleaning and whitewashing begins. Mother and Diccon will sleep in the tower room, the others in tents on the roof. A makeshift washing area is arranged but where did they go to the loo? Writers of this date seldom mention such important details.
While all this is going on a mystery develops. Old Jim tells Tamzin that an unfortunate pony has been left outside a pub all day in the heat with no water. There’s a tub cart with him and a box in the cart but no sign of the owner. The pony is taken to the vicarage to be cared for, the police are informed but there’s no sign of the owner and no missing person has been reported.
The move to the tower is successful and they make it quite homely. After a day or two, Meryon seems quite recovered, but can’t remember what happened to him. He seems fine but Tamzin is constantly hearing him shouting in his sleep. The other two don’t notice until one night it’s so bad she wakes them and they discuss what to do. Tamzin confides in her mother and the two visit their doctor to ask for advice. What is the best way to help Meryon? His accident turns out to be connected with the mysterious tub cart and all ends happily, with the bonus of the four friends finding that Roland, currently living at the vicarage, is a very decent sort and not the horror they had imagined. It’s odd that when Meryon is not quite himself, the others feel lost because they look to him as a leader. What? It’s Tamzin who comes up with all the mad ideas.
No Entry (1952)
This is all about an outbreak of foot and mouth disease which threatens Castle Farm. Tamzin and her friends are preparing for a camping holiday there when a letter from Mrs Merrow puts them off, saying the whole farm is in a state of siege. At first downhearted, Tamzin then thinks they could still go if they could find a way of disinfecting themselves, which they do. This seems highly irresponsible and Mike is not at all pleased to see them, saying they’d better not let his dad know they’re there. Then Mr Merrow has an accident. After having his arm stitched up by Meryon (minor surgery, now!) he doesn’t recover from his head injury. They virtually kidnap a doctor, then forcibly disinfect the poor man and the farmer is taken off to hospital, with his wife, for an operation. So, as in The White Riders, Tamzin and friends are in charge of the housekeeping, with the added duty of patrolling the boundaries to keep people away. Meryon is allowed a gun but unloaded. There are two trespassers, both apologetic but then the gypsies move back to the site they had in The Midnight Horse. They allow their lurchers to run around, refuse to heed Mike’s warnings and eventually, he shoots the dogs. Their revenge is to disappear with 100 of Mr Merrow’s best breeding ewes. The people at Castle Farm fail to find them until Jim Decks (who manages to know everything) sends them morse code messages by torch, telling them where to look. Sure enough, the ewes are found, dipped and returned to the farm. By this time the household is running out of many essential supplies. The all clear doesn’t come until the young ones are back at school (you can’t think their holidays were much fun, with so much stress and hard work). Mr Merrow is better and Mrs Merrow plans a big party, which she insists will only take place when everyone invited has been to church to give thanks. Really a book about the hardships of farming.
Storm Ahead is such a good book, it deserves a post to itself.
