The Nightwatch Winter

by Jenny Overton

sequel to Creed Country

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

Librarian note: There is more than one author with this name in the Goodreads database.

Jenny Margaret Mary Overton
1942-2017

Reviews

[Clare Sudbery · Rating 5 out of 5]

(not actually a review, just a quick summary because I'm just using Goodreads to remember which books I've read. Also note that date read is VERY much approximate).
Jenny Overton was my godmother and sadly died in 2017, so I decided it would be nice to revisit this book. This edition came from my grandparents' house, and my grandmother was Jenny's godmother, so it seems fitting as her goddaughter that the inscription in this book reads "To my godmother - with affection and thanks - Jenny Overton, February 29 1976".
In this book, the Wentworth children spend their time roaming ancient ditches ("dikes") in seaside countryside in Surrey, exploring the local old church and discovering ancient hideaways. Their adventures are mostly gentle, but they encounter real peril and the story easily carries the reader along.
Jenny's rich knowledge and love of the local history of this area where she was born and spent most of her life, is evident.

[Nicholas Whyte · Rating 3 out of 5]

 https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/the-nightwatch-winter-by-jenny-overton-and-elizabeth-grant-illustrator/

A sequel to the lovely Creed Country by the same author, following the adventures of Sarah’s (many) younger siblings and their friends as they explore the countryside around them in the snow, get to know a mysterious old lady, and produce a medieval Mystery Play in an old church. To be honest, the plot is a bit diffuse with an abundance of characters to follow, but they do each have a distinct voice and it portrays a more innocent time (the cusp of the 1970s) in rural Surrey (a concept that barely exists these days)

[Stephen Hayes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thirty years ago, when our children were small, we subscribed to the Puffin Book Club, and every month a new book arrived, and was put on the shelves. I don't know how many of them the children read, but the other day, looking for some light reading, and not having seen anything I hadn't read on our general fiction shelves, I looked on the old children's books' shelf, and found this.

It's a very ordinary story about some school children in a village in the south of England. In the Christmas holidays they get bored, and go exploring the neighbourhood, in the course of which they encounter a reclusive woman who lives alone with her cat. When the Lent term starts at school they get involved in preparing for a play.

The children are of indeterminate ages, though as the youngest is 11, I assume that most of the others are somewhere in the age range of 11-14.

I think it is the kind of book I would have hated as a child.

The problem is that it is so ordinary. It describes things that children do, like climbing up drains and acting in school plays, and being jealous over who gets the best parts and so on.

It was published 40 years ago, and so describes a vanished generation. There is only one mention of a computer in the whole story, and no one would have had one at home. And the play they produce is an Easter play, and the children seem to be familiar with the plot. Even back then, that might have been quite unusual (though the girls were at a church school, run by nuns). I recall a Church of England bishop of about that period describing how he took his nephew and niece to see Jesus Christ, Superstar, and being somewhat disconcerted to find that they didn't know the plot.

But in spite of its ordinariness, I found the story quite moving in a way. I wouldn't buy it for a child to read, though. I'd be afraid that they would have been as horribly bored as I would have been.

[N Young · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sort of children's adventure novel, but with very little real adventure. It's well-written, but I prefer the Famous Five/Secret Seven novels for this sort of things as there's a bit more to the plot.