Monica le Doux Newton Edwards

Background

Monica le Doux Newton Edwards was born on November 8, 1912, in Belper, Derbyshire, United Kingdom. She was the third of four children born to the Reverend Harry and Beryl Newton. Edwards family moved to Wakefield, Yorkshire in 1919. Harry Newton was a diocesan exorcist, so he often took his children with him when performing exorcisms. In 1927 the family moved to Rye Harbour in Romney Marsh, Sussex.

Education

Edwards had a fragmentary formal education. She attended Wakefield Girls' High School between September 1920 and July 1921. She also studied at St. Brandon's School, Bristol where she had remained for just three months in 1928.

Career

Edwards wrote about female protagonist Tamzin Grey in stories such as Wish for a Pony, The White Riders, No Entry and The Nightbird. The Grey stories were set in Romney Marsh, which was based on the real Rye Harbour where Edwards grew up. She also gained popularity with another series, featuring the Thornton children on Punchbowl Farm, in books such as No Mistaking Corker, The Wild One, and Spirit of Punchbowl Farm. Edwards, her husband, William, and their children also came to live on a farm called Punch Bowl in Thursley, Surrey, England. She altered the name of her fictional farm, making it one word instead of two, to make it easier for her young readers. Her book Storm Ahead, published in 1953, recounted the sinking of the Mary Stanford and the loss of its crew.

Edwards also penned books for adults, including The Unsought Farm, The Cats of Punchbowl Farm, The Badgers of Punchbowl Farm, Badger Valley, and The Valley and the Farm. The Edwards sold Punch Bowl Farm after William was severely injured in a farming accident.

Edwards also published articles and verses in various publications and was the editor of a Correspondence Magazine for Parents. She was also a contributor to 'The Elizabethan', 'The Children's Newspaper', 'Woman's Journal' and to the BBC's Children's Hour. She also wrote the story for the Children's Film Foundation film Dawn Killer, set on Romney Marsh.

BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) television visited Punch Bowl Farm for a programme about her; an account of which is given in The Cats of Punchbowl Farm, and fictionalised in The Cownappers.

Achievements

• Edwards is best known for her Romney Marsh and Punchbowl Farm series of children's novels.

Works

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  • No Entry 1972
  • Cargo of Horses 1951
  • The white riders 1960
  • Wish for a Pony 1966
  • No Going Back 1965
  • Frenchman's Secret 1959
  • Wind is Blowing 1969
  • Fire in the Punchbowl 1965
  • Operation Seabird 1957
  • The Spirit of Punchbowl Farm 1986

Views

Quotations: “My books for children are all based on fact ... Both [locations] are real, and the events can be followed on Ordnance Survey maps for the areas.”

Connections

Monica married Bill Edwards, a local man, in Rye Harbour Church in 1933. The marriage produced a daughter Shelley and a son Sean. Edwards was also survived by a grand-daughter Kitty.

Father:

Harry Newton

Mother:

Beryl Newton

grand-daughter:

Kitty Edwards

husband:

Bill Edwards

Daughter:

Shelley Edwards

Son:

Sean Edwards