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Post by Claire on Nov 30, 2011 13:28:49 GMT 1
As you may know we are having a double whammy of books for our reading circle over the Christmas period - one pony related, one non-pony Christmas themed book. Our pony selection is Black Hunting Whip by Monica Edwards. This is the first book in the Punchbowl Farm series proper. (The previous book No Mistaking Corker features the same children but is not really part of the farm series.) In this book the family move into a farm of their own. There, in a hidden cellar, the children find an old diary written by a horse mad boy many years before and become involved in his story. There are plenty of wintry bits and a Christmas section to get you in the mood for the festive season. Paperback copies are fairly cheap, but if you want to borrow a copy from someone or have a spare one you can lend please post here. Discussion can take place approximately 2 weeks from now and continue on thru the Christmas hols.
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Post by fizz on Nov 30, 2011 18:10:25 GMT 1
Can anyone lend me one? I gave mine away some twenty years ago & all I can remember is it's creepy.
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Post by Claire on Dec 1, 2011 20:17:40 GMT 1
Can anyone lend me one? I gave mine away some twenty years ago & all I can remember is it's creepy. I can lend you a copy fizz but I would want it back as its my personal copy which I have had for donkey's years, which you can prob tell by how tatty it is. I dont mind you passing it on to anyone else who wants to borrow it tho, as long as it comes back home to me eventually.
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Post by fizz on Dec 1, 2011 21:05:21 GMT 1
Of course I will look after it, not read it in the bath (I can't fit in the one in our new house any way, even though I'm not clinically obese) & post it back to you or on to someone else.
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Post by Claire on Dec 1, 2011 21:15:28 GMT 1
lol fizz I wouldnt worry about reading it in the bath, its a really tatty pb copy, just has sentimental value.
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Post by foxglove on Dec 2, 2011 14:39:49 GMT 1
I'll have to wait until I go to my parents' over Christmas and have a sort through my boxes of old books in the loft to retrieve my copy. Pretty certain there's nothing of value in my old pony book collection, but would be good to see familiar old friends.
Black Hunting Whip was the only Edwards book I owned; I think I read the others in the library. Must re-read them all in the right order.
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Post by Claire on Dec 19, 2011 20:02:40 GMT 1
Finally managed to squeeze in some time to read this amongst all the cooking, cleaning, thinking up quizzes, answering quizzes and the like. I'll get it sent off to you fizz after Xmas so it doesnt get caught up in all the Xmas backlog.
Anyone else started on it?
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Post by Claire on Jan 4, 2012 17:58:49 GMT 1
WARNING - SOME SPOILERS
I enjoyed reading this again. But something I never really thought of before struck me this time, how in those days a normal person with a moderate amount of money could buy a rundown Elizabethan manor house with 70 acres!!! Nowadays you would have to be a multi millionaire to own such a property. It just shows how times have changed. If you wanted to opt out of the rat race and live in the country and try farming you could. There was a freedom and amount of space that is sadly lacking in England now. Made me quite envious reading about the family's lifestyle which would be my dream.
Getting to the story itself, it's a good Christmas choice as it has the christmas festivities as well as snow. I like the fact that there is a realism about the christmas which is not perfect (as in many other childrens books) due to Lindsey being ill in bed.
Its an excellent story which is more tightly plotted than many of this series. It combines quite a few elements, the holiday adventure type story plus a mystery, plus a slight ghostly element plus the farming side of things.
I really like the ending which provides the ghostly twist. Strangely altho its certainly not a realistic ending, the fact that Dion doesn't miraculously improve the pony to win the jumping himself is realistic. If he had it would have made for a trite and rather cheesy ending.
The only niggle I have is that the ghost bit is introduced very abruptly and jars a bit with the rest of the story, it maybe would have been better to have a few little hints of otherworldly activity throughout the book, but then again the twist then might not have worked. Overall its a great read and along with the last book (The Wild One) my fav of the series.
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Post by Claire on Jan 7, 2012 21:02:04 GMT 1
Just to let you know that there is a copy available to borrow, so if anyone wants to read it please send a message to fizz who has the copy at the mo.
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Post by fizz on Jan 11, 2012 18:55:53 GMT 1
Warning: Contains Spoilers! I really enjoyed re reading this book. I have read the Punchbowl Series completely out of order during my life & I still haven't read all of them; I always loved the books I can clearly remember getting Spirit of Punchbowl Farm from a local sweet & tobacco shop where my Father used to get his Players cigarettes. He would often come home with a pony book for me & I think this one was recommended to me by the lady who ran the shop. She also had Long Pony Race etc & told my Father to get them for she knew I was mad about ponies!
I didn't come to this book until I was much older, I think I was even working when I picked it up in a charity shop, long recycled so I borrowed this one from Claire (thank you!). I knew about Moonstone's accident from later books but it was such a shock that it came right at the beginning of the book. Of course this sets the tone & without the mare out of action the other ponies might not have been acquired for the children. I remembered Moonstone & the Hunting Whip but I had forgotten a lot of it. I seemed to remember it having more supernatural happenings than it has, but I might have been confusing it with Spirit of Punchbowl Farm. That genuinely frightened me as I child & made me nervous on the dark landings at home; Joan from the sweety shop can't have read it!
What I hadn't been so aware of in early readings (of this & other books) is the very subtle humour there. The description of the Rector looking like a boxer, the vanner that chases dogs, especially the scene where the Rector uses his Mother's peke as a lure. This is made more amusing when Peter thought it was his wife. Peter provides a lot of the book's humour. I remember my Mum reading my books from this series, she enjoyed them & liked what she thought was authentic descriptions of farming life from a particular era. She herself had been evacuated from North London to her Grandparent's farm outside Lichfield during the war.
As a family they always seem to have quite serious accidents & injuries in all the books. I was very surprised the doctor didn't send Lindsay to hospital. Is any one old enough to know if at one time someone with concussion was kept at home rather than hospital? What I love about the books, being an only child is how the family is portrayed, loving but with differing views & opinions, this develops between Dion & Lindsay as time passes. I also love Mrs Thornton & wished I had her for a Mother!
Apart from Lindsay's accident (that for the time might be accurate) there are some bits that I am not completely convinced by. We do not know where their money came from, one must assume that the parents had other means or had inherited money. The other thing is that it ends very abruptly & Dion never mentions the "supernatural experience" to the others. Does he in later books? I have a feeling "the Boy" makes a re-appearance in "Spirit". I am also surprised that no-one at the show was suspicious of the rider, we all know how bitchy & nosy some horsey people can be...... The illustrations are not as nice as those Tunnicliffe did for Punchbowl Midnight. However I found it a really lovely comfort read.
If anyone wants me to pass it on please PM me & I will get it in the post. I can really recommend it if you haven't read it.
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Post by Claire on Jan 11, 2012 22:32:56 GMT 1
Yes I think it is Spirit of Punchbowl where the ghostly stuff is re-visited. But its yonks since I read that one. I do agree with you fizz re. the humour and also the family interaction which was one of the high points of both her well known series.
Re the hospital/concussion thing, I think the doctor would just come out to you and make sure you stayed in the dark etc. Its similar to Christopher in Pony Club Team who just gets sent to bed by the old nurse! Far different times!
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Post by fizz on Jan 12, 2012 22:41:24 GMT 1
Now she would have been airlifted on Christmas Eve in a helicopter with paramedics & had a brain scan & quite rightly!
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Post by kunuma on Jan 17, 2012 22:46:56 GMT 1
Like Claire, the amazing (and jealousy inducing part) is that somewhere like that could be bought for peanuts back then! That part is very true to RL as that is how they got the real Punchbowl farm, when they came to sell it 20 odd years later, two of the prospective buyers were Paul Mcartney and George Harrison!! Linda McCartney in fact rode Monica's horse around the farm to look at it!
Thinking about riding accidents back then - I'm not sure what this says about my parents - but at age ten I was found unconscious by a couple of golfers after my mad two year old pony tried to short cut down a cliff when scared by a sheep. I got headache pills and a lecture - that's all!
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Post by fizz on Jan 18, 2012 21:07:21 GMT 1
Does anyone want to read this still? I have Claire's book & will post it on to you. It's a good read.
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Post by Claire on Apr 7, 2012 12:25:55 GMT 1
Just re-read Spirit of Punchbowl and yes this is another supernatural one, altho its not the boy from Black Hunting Whip who re-appears as I erroneously thought. If you liked Black Hunting Whip I would recommend Spirit, although its a lot less horsy.
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Post by darkhorse on Apr 15, 2012 15:55:24 GMT 1
I know I am extremely late with this one But I have just managed to read it. Ironically I started it when I couldn't get throught the current reading circle book.....but that's another story! I did really enjoy it and I will probably read more of this series soon when I get round to finding them. I was surprised at the ending as it had been quite down to earth up until then. I voted very good.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 6, 2013 13:19:49 GMT 1
I'm only two years late with this one Agree with Claire and Kunuma on the jealousy thing about buying a gorgeous farm like that for peanuts. I was very envious! I think they were a lot tougher in those days re the accident. No wrapping children up in cotton wool then! The ending I thought was a bit abrupt and I didn't feel it sat well with the rest of the book. It did jar a bit. However, I absolutely loved the book apart from that. I bought the Girls Gone By edition which has the extras at the front and reading those chapters really brought the book alive seeing B&W photos of the farm etc. Kunuma that's really interesting about Paul McCartney etc. Did that come from her non-fiction book about Punchbowl Farm? Can't wait to read the next book now!
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