Synopsis: As soon as she arrives in Wellow, Polly Flint knows there is magic in the place. And she should know because she is an unusual girl who can see things others can’t. Polly seems to be able to call up a village that had disappeared from the face of the earth – and the people who lived in it, as they slip in and out of time.

Review: This new edition of Helen Cresswell’s classic story is a heart-warming mixture of fantasy and friendship, magic and mystery, set in rural Nottinghamshire.

When her father is injured in a mining accident, Polly is sent to live in the village of Wellow, in the “polished kingdom” of her fastidious Aunt Em. But amidst the natural beauty of Rufford Park, Polly meets the Time Gypsies, people from Grimstone, a village which centuries ago “slipped the net of time”. Can the feisty heroine win the friendship of the gypsies without her aunt finding out? And can she help them return to their own time, before they fall into the clutches of the mysterious Catcher?

A key theme of this short novel is freedom. The world of Aunt Em, with her obsessive tidiness and her “dictatorial clock” stands in sharp contrast to the expansiveness of the park and the timeless freedom of the gypsies, untouched by the passage of hours and years. However, Cresswell is also celebrating the freedom of the imagination, from Polly’s bed-ridden father, still able to fly with the birds in his dreams, to Polly herself determined to pursue her visions of another world, just hidden from sight.

This is a gentle but engaging story, with mysteries to be unravelled and strong (if slightly predictable) characterisation. Ideal for confident readers from Year 4 upwards.

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2008-08-03