posted on 17 Jul 2022

Moondial by Helen Cresswell

Helen Cresswell, who died in 2005, was a successful television scriptwriter and a prolific children’s novelist, including the likes of the Lizzie Dripping and the Bagworth Saga books. So it’s not surprising that she always had one eye on stories that would adapt well to the page and to the screen and her 1987 fantasy, Moondial, found its way into a television series the following year.

A young girl, Minty (Araminta) Kane, finds herself confronted with the prospect of spending a summer staying with her rather straight-laced Aunt Mary while her mother, recently widowed, settles into a new job. Minty thinks of herself as something of a ‘witch’ with a heightened sensitivity to the paranormal and that is soon confirmed when she is exploring the National Trust property, Belton House, close to her Aunt’s cottage and she discovers a remarkable ‘moondial’ that has the power to send her back in time.

She finds herself visiting two different past times: she first encounters a young kitchen hand from the 19th century, Tom, who is consumptive and tormented by his inability to be reunited with his sister and then Sarah from the 18th century who is being persecuted because of the birthmark on her face. Minty soon understands that it is her destiny to ‘liberate’ the spirit of these two children.

But Minty herself has a tragedy to deal with in her own time. Just as she is uncovering the power of the moondial she discovers her mother has been involved in a near fatal road accident and is being kept in hospital in a coma. Minty discovers that the best way to help her mom during this critical time is to talk to her as often as possible and so she hits on the idea of making tape recorded messages for her mom that can be played to her in hospital. It’s through this device that she tells her mom all about her time travelling and her battle to free Tom and Sarah - or maybe Tom and Sarah’s ghosts - from their bondage.

Of course, I’m not going to describe how the story resolves itself because you will want to read it for yourself but you won’t be surprised to hear that Minty has some hurdles to overcome and adventures to endure before things set themselves straight.

Cresswell is such a skilful writer that confident readers aged 9+ should be able to enjoy this without too much help and much older readers like me will be equally as entranced by the fantasy of using time travel to right wrongs.

I find myself agreeing with the review published by Kirkus back in 1987 when the book was released:

“Carefully wrought and evanescent as a ghost story should be, this will be enjoyed by any admirer of Tom's Midnight Garden, the Green Knowe stories, or A Chance Child Like those fine fantasies, Moondial is grounded in crucial emotional reality, deepened and strengthened by the imaginative elements of the story.”

Copies of the book can readily be found in both paper and hardback and you should expect to pay well under £10 for a copy.

Terry Potter

July 2022