Wish for a Pony and The Summer of the Great Secret

 

Total comfort reading here: Monica Edwards' first two books in the Romney Marsh series, Wish for a Pony and The Summer of the Great Secret, from 1947 and 1948 respectively. I can't tell you why, but I was absolutely in love with these books as an eight or nine or ten year old growing up in the Highlands of PNG. I know now that the Romney Marsh books are widely beloved by ladies of, ahem, a certain age, as attested by the fact that Girls Gone By have reprinted several of the titles, which I have duly sought out and bought -- but it's these two first stories that captured my heart (there were later books in the Mt Hagen library, but I wasn't impressed when boys came into it).

 

Perhaps it was the rock solid friendship between Tamzin and Rissa that appealed to me -- I used to put myself to sleep at night imagining I was their friend, too, and that we all had adventures together. Perhaps it was the pony content; of course I wanted a pony, but not in any realistic way. Perhaps it was the very staid English village setting; perhaps it was the glamour of film-making in the second book, which tied in with the Noel Streatfeild books I was also addicted to. In fact, there is a lot going on in the second book, which was the one I loved most -- smuggling, making a film, pony stuff, and the intertwined story of Lesley, the original owner of Tamzin's pony Cascade, who can no longer walk after a riding accident (don't worry, there's a happy ending).

 

I used to know The Summer of the Great Secret so well that when I borrowed it from the library I wouldn't even need to read it; I'd stash it under my pillow as a talisman and never even open it. By the time I got to it, it had lost its cover, so I never knew it looking as it does above, just with a plain blue hardcover from the Seagull Library, which is the same copy that I have since acquired. I can't put my finger on why these books bewitched me so thoroughly, but they will always have a special place in my heart.