Time Tangle

by Frances Eagar

While staying at her convent school over Christmas, a young girl meets a mysterious young man she believes is a ghost from the sixteenth century.

Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Time Travel

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1976

Reviews

[Andria · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's easy to see why I liked this book as a kid: a brooding, imaginative student at a Catholic girls' school (just like me!) unravels the mysteries of the time-space continuum when she sings Greensleeves in the woods and summons a mysterious young man from the 15th Century. He needs her help, but can she do anything to change events that happened hundreds of years ago? CAN SHE?

It had all the elements I looked for in a book when I was 10, but rereading it today I realize that's about all it has. At 150 pages there's just not a lot of story there. There are a few spooky moments and a few funny moments but it just can't compare with a richly layered time slip like the more recent (and weighty) Revolution.

Random details that you might remember from this book if you read it as a kid and are trying to remember the title: Anne Boleyn & Henry VIII, Catholic history, a priest's hole, roses on the wallpaper in the shape of constellations, one rose is a knob that opens a secret door, a silver cross necklace, singing Greensleeves, making empty pies w/ no filling, sending a thank you note in advance of the visit.

[Juju]

My favourite book as a girl, read around 1981 the first time. I loved the magic & the mystery.

[Lindsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

A funny little book about a daydreamer stuck at her Catholic boarding school over Christmas break.

[Tania · Rating 4 out of 5]

Young Beth is stuck at boarding school while her friends are away on Christmas holiday. No worries, though, because she's dealing with the darkest time of her life and could not imagine a happy time in her future. She plans to daydream her way through life, to wish away her troubles. Until she meets Adam, the mysterious boy in the woods. Soon she realizes other people have much bigger troubles than hers.

It's a simple book - there's a setting, and Elizabeth has a goal that she doggedly pursues. I don't think this hinders the story at all - it's actually very easy to read. Certainly I can understand the temptation to daydream instead of facing one's problems. Ultimately, Beth must come to terms with what is real and what is not, and the distraction of it all gives her time to heal. Very nice story, and I think it has aged well.

[Rachel Ward-Dutton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun to revisit, but not as good as I remember it having been. :(

[Lynette Caulkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now, *there* is a fun lark back to the past with a read that involves time echoes to the Elizabethan past. I had been reading this story as a child in 1977, and had to return it to the library before finishing it when we moved. For some reason, it has haunted me off and on, wanting to know how it ended. I've periodically attempted online searches to identify the story, remembering only something about time travel, a boarding school, and a hawk priest, and this time somebody knew what the book was. The fourth star I'm awarding probably hearkens more from sentimental fulfillment than from recognition of highest merit, but Time Tangle still stands as an engrossing youth tale of fantasy/historical fiction. Unlike a couple other childhood revisitations, this one did not disappoint me as an adult.

[CLM · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lonely girl alone at boarding school over the holidays encounters a 16th century ghost in Frances Eagar's compelling time travel story.