Fire in the Punchbowl is the ninth book in the Punchbowl Farm series of novels by Monica Edwards

Monica Edwards

Monica Edwards was an English children's writer of the mid-twentieth century best known for her Romney Marsh and Punchbowl Farm series of children's novels.-Early life:...

, published in 1965 by Collins

HarperCollins

HarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...

. The book was illustrated by Geoffrey Whittam. Punchbowl Farm is threatened by a fire which spreads northwards from the Devil's Punch Bowl

Devil's Punch Bowl

The Devil's Punch Bowl is a large natural amphitheatre and beauty spot near Hindhead, Surrey, in England, and is the source of many stories about the area. The London to Portsmouth road used to climb round its side, but this is now closed due to the Hindhead Tunnel opening on the 27th July 2011...

 to the farm itself in a story which has one of the author’s most dramatic and exciting endings. Roger and Rissa from the Romney Marsh series have returned to the farm and the story also tells of their developing relationships with Lindsey and Dion respectively.

Blurb from First Edition

Punch Bowl Farm, under Dion's influence, had been extensively modernised, and although his sister Lindsey mourned for the old ways, when milking had been done by hand and in some of the fields the bracken had been six feet high, there was no doubt that it was now more efficient.

It was summer and Roger and Rissa had come from Romney Marsh and were staying at the farm—the chief reasons for their visit being Lindsey and Dion. Never had anybody known it to be so hot, and each day seemed hotter than the day before. But the cows dropped their calves just the same, and Mr. Landis's bees droned in the heather. Roger and Lindsey, and Dion and Rissa rode in the fields and worked on the farm despite the intense heat.

And then, suddenly, almost without warning, it happened. It had happened before, of course, but then there had been no wind: a fire started in the Devil's Punch Bowl. Everybody went out to beat, but fanned by the wind the flames went leaping through the scorched undergrowth, and all too soon it was clear that the expensively modernised farm itself was threatened. Were all Dion's dreams to be reduced to a pile of charred timber?

Monica Edwards handles with her accustomed skill the mounting excitement of the fire and the increasing involvement of Dion with Rissa, and Roger with Lindsey.

Subsequent editions

• Children’s Book Club edition - 1966
• Armada paperback - 1967
• Evergreen Library - 1969
• Girls Gone By Publishers
  Girls Gone By Publishers
  Girls Gone By Publishers is a publishing company run by Clarissa Cridland and Ann Mackie-Hunter and is based in Bath, Somerset. They re-publish new editions of some of the most popular girls' fiction titles from the twentieth century.-Elinor Brent-Dyer:...
  
  reprint of original - September 2010