Moondial

Helen Cresswell was one of my childhood favourites. I feel nostalgic at the mere mention of Lizzie Dripping, The Secret World of Polly Flint and, most especially, Moondial. This 1987 classic combines Cresswell’s love of historical, gothic and speculative fiction. Like the more famous Tom’s Midnight Garden, Moondial is a timeslip novel. I think it is a more exciting story and one that gives its main character – Minty – a great deal of agency.

What I recalled strongly from my childhood reading is that Minty is a determined girl on a mission to rescue two children from two different points in time: a hundred years before the present, and another hundred years before that. She moves back and forth via a sundial – when the moon shines on it. One of those children is Tom: mistreated servant boy and orphan; the other is Sarah, tormented rich girl, ridiculed because of a facial birthmark. The sundial is in the grounds of a great house, near which Minty is staying with her conservative but, fortunately, unobservant aunt.

What I hadn’t remembered was the reason for Minty’s time away from home (indeed the reason she’s the perfect candidate for the mission): her mother is in a coma after a car accident. It’s funny what you filter out as a child reader. I was obviously far more interested in Minty’s mission, which is very dramatic with a hint of horror and some interesting – but not tediously explored – theories on time, loneliness, and love. Highly recommended for readers aged 10 to 13 years.

Emily Gale