Spirit of Punchbowl Farm
Encyclopedia
Spirit of Punchbowl Farm is the third book in the Punchbowl Farm series of novels by Monica Edwards
, published in 1952 by Collins
. The book was illustrated by Joan Wanklyn. The story centres on the farm’s triple-trunked yew tree which Lindsey loves and believes to hold the spirit of the farm. Dion, however, sees it only as a threat to the farm’s livestock for its leaves are poisonous to cattle. Eventually Dion and Lindsey are given a vision of why it was planted in the first place.
In chapter fourteen "Accident in Time" one of the characters mentions a book by "a fellow called Dunne" when talking about the supernatural "time-slip" elements of the story. This was John William Dunne
whose book An Experiment with Time
Monica Edwards was obviously familiar with.
Monica Edwards
Monica Edwards was an English children's writer of the mid-twentieth century best known for her Romney Marsh and Punchbowl Farm series of children's novels.-Early life:...
, published in 1952 by Collins
HarperCollins
HarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...
. The book was illustrated by Joan Wanklyn. The story centres on the farm’s triple-trunked yew tree which Lindsey loves and believes to hold the spirit of the farm. Dion, however, sees it only as a threat to the farm’s livestock for its leaves are poisonous to cattle. Eventually Dion and Lindsey are given a vision of why it was planted in the first place.
In chapter fourteen "Accident in Time" one of the characters mentions a book by "a fellow called Dunne" when talking about the supernatural "time-slip" elements of the story. This was John William Dunne
John William Dunne
John William Dunne FRAeS was an Anglo-Irish aeronautical engineer and author. In the field of parapsychology, he achieved a preeminence through his theories on dreams and authoring books preoccupied with the question of the nature of time...
whose book An Experiment with Time
An Experiment with Time
An Experiment with Time is a long essay by the Irish aeronautical engineer J. W. Dunne on the subjects of precognition and the human experience of time. First published in March 1927, it was very widely read, and his ideas promoted by several other authors, in particular by J. B. Priestley. Other...
Monica Edwards was obviously familiar with.
Blurb from First Edition
It is a fine yew tree that for many hundreds of years has protected Punchbowl Farm from gales and storms. Lindsey loves it and feels certain that it holds the spirit which guards their home and that to destroy it would be wrong and might cause some dreadful disaster. But Dion, who has taken the many problems of running the farm on his practical young shoulders, knows only that its poisonous branches are a constant menace to his herd and even to their beloved ponies. They cannot afford to have the tree fenced and so, he says, it must come down. But Lindsey is determined that some other solution must be found; that somehow the yew must be preserved yet the cattle protected. It seems that they will never understand each other's point of view, until they are linked together by strange and enthralling experiences which reveal to them the past history of the tree, and, in sympathy at last, they see what must be done.
Subsequent editions
- 6/- edition - 1956
- Armada paperback - 1963
- John Goodchild new edition (updated) - 1986