Monica Edwards - Publishers

Publishers

When she wrote Wish for a Pony Edwards did not realise that finding an agent would be a necessary step to having the story published. Instead she simply sent it to Collins (now HarperCollins), who accepted it for publication. She quickly came to dislike the book:

Monica Edwards wanted to alter much of Wish for a Pony soon after it was published but Collins told her they would only publish her next story (No Mistaking Corker) if Wish for a Pony remained as it was.

All the books in the two series were published by Collins, but abridged versions of some of the titles in both series were published as Armada paperbacks. The non-series book Under The Rose was also published by Collins.

Edwards' chief illustrator was Geoffrey Whittam, although the first four books (Wish for a Pony, No Mistaking Corker, The Summer of the Great Secret and The Midnight Horse) had illustrations by Anne Bullen; Joan Wanklyn illustrated Spirit of Punchbowl Farm, The Wanderer and Punchbowl Harvest, and Charles Tunnicliffe illustrated Punchbowl Midnight.

In the 1980s John Goodchild published new versions of some of the earlier titles. These versions were updated by the author to make them less rooted in the 1950s. However, Goodchild died before Storm Ahead was published and the project was abandoned.

Edwards’ two children, Shelley and Sean, have recently agreed to the republishing of their mother's entire output, starting at the point where John Goodchild stopped in the 1980s, with Storm Ahead (published July 2005). The appointed publisher is a small concern specialising in the nostalgia republishing of (mainly girls') books, Girls Gone By Publishers. This distinguishes them from the reprints of the 1980s, which were still notionally aimed at children; the reprints are essentially aimed at nostalgic adults. So far Girls Gone By Publishers have republished all the Romney Marsh titles from Storm Ahead to A Wind Is Blowing and have now started publishing the Punchbowl titles.

Shelley and Sean have also approved the writing of their mother's biography by Brian Parks. It was published by Girls Gone By Publishers in February 2010. Brian Parks' Companion to the Romney Marsh series of books was published in July 2006.