Wales

Wales and Cheshire
The Rising Tide – MEA –
When she inherits three small islands, an eighteen year old persuades
her friend to go and live there for the winter, in islands off the
coast of Wales, with a mystery to solve, and danger from the tide.


The Pirates of Thorne Island – Phill Carradice
Nat Thomas and the other boys from the "Havannah" sail along the Severn
Estuary on a training cruise on board the "Polly". When the "Polly" is
damaged in a storm they put in to Pembroke Dock for repairs. Nat and
the boys stay in the army fort on Thorne Island, where they see lights
late one night.

The Bosun's Secret – Phil Carradice
Nat Thomas, a young orphan boy, is sent to the Industrial School
Ship "Havannah" in Cardiff in 1870. The conditions on the ship are
brutal, most of the brutality being carried out by Bosun Jayne, who
singles Nat out and subjects him to a reign of terror. (

Telling the Sea – Pauline Fisk
Follows the fortunes of Nona, her mother and Nona's younger sister
Sharon. The family runs away together to the seaside village in Wales
which was the focus of Nona's mother's own childhood happiness. The
author also wrote "Midnight Blue", winner of the 1990 Smarties Prize.


Rosalie K.Fry The Riddle of the Figurehead
Building a boat on the Gower peninsula, a French visitor and the fight
to save Sammy from being sent to a hostel away from his beloved
guillemot.
The Riddle of the Figurehead – Rosalie K. Fry
The Bevans children, with their exchange visitor from Brittany and
their newly made boat Evening Star, figure out the riddle of the
Sammy's figurehead, and save his simple beach home. Fine descriptions
of the shore of South Wales. Set in a particularly attractive part of
the Welsh coast the young heroine Stella Bevan, 11, is helping her
elder brothers build a boat 'The Even ing Star'. Mystery develops. Set
on the Welsh coast. Stella Bevan, aged 11, is helping her elder
brothers build a boat. They are going to call it The Evening Star.
Stella is expecting a French girl to stay with her during the holidays,
but Phiippe, a brother of the French girl, arrives instead. He proves
(to everyone's surprise) exceptionally good value, not only in helping
to launch the boat but also in sailing it. All the Bevan family
subsequently become involved in a local injustice which they put right,
and in which Philippe plays an audacious and decisive part as a
detective

September Island – Rosalie K. Fry
Children are stranded on a sand bar off the Welsh coast.

Perilous Dawn – W.J. Goodyer
What was the strange secret of the blue suitcase? That was the question
which puzzled Jimmy Keene, his parents and his brother Roger, when they
returned to Wales from holiday on the Isle of man."
The problems that began as the family make their way home by car from
Liverpool to Radnorshire just seem to get worse and worse. They have stumbled
into a plot that may involve IRA saboteurs or even Russian spies. A new
installation in the mountains is under some sort of threat and the gang
that the boys tangle with is not afraid to use threats and kidnap in order
to get their way. Both Jimmy and Roger have to use all their resources
to unable the police to overcome a very cunning and ruthless bunch of
ne-er-do-wells.

Margaret W. Griffiths Hazel in Uniform
World War II spy adventure involving Hazel and her friends, set on the Welsh coast.

Detectives in Wales – Jean Henson
A children's story in a series The Holloway children, mystery solvers,
are by the sea in a large house in Wales. By the author of River
Detectives, Detectives in the Hills, Detectives by the sea and
Detectives Abroad


Holiday Adventure – William Glynne-Jones
An entertaining story telling of a group of children's adventures
during their summer holiday in the small Welsh village of Portavon


Green Grow the Rushes – Elinor Lyon
A girl from London, vacationing on the rugged Welsh coast with a
snippy, spoiled companion, finds three adventurous friends whom she
joins in a search for the cliffborne track of an old Roman road.

Curlew Camp C. R. MANSELL
The Guides of the Curlew Patrol have been hoping for Adventure—and they
get it, when they find that the camp they are to join in the country
near the Welsh coast does not exist.
But that is only the beginning. Camping in the orchard of an old
house that has once been used for smuggling they soon discover that
their cheerful hostess is in trouble; and the disappearance of dogs
from her kennels, followed by visits of a man who wants to buy her
home, is to the Guides more than just a mere coincidence. A new kennel-
maid who obviously resents their presence, a midnight rendezvous that
almost ends in ends in disaster due to Rose's curiosity, and strange
tapping noises in the cellar, are mounting evidence of a mystery that
is to involve them in excitements and even dangers. How the Guides win
credit to themselves—and an adorable sheep-dog puppy as a mascot is a
story that all girls will enjoy.

A Wind from the Sea – Jennifer Morgan
It's 1833 Liverpool and a dead body is found in the Mersey - a black
woman slave. Thirteen year old Patience Penry hears this news as her
own life is turned into turmoil. Locked into poverty, her mother is
forced into domestic service and she must move to live with Uncle Huw
on his farm in Wales.


Spring Tide – Mary Ray
Set in Roman Britain in Caer Taff (Cardiff).


The House by the Shore – Ivy Russell
. .Children's story about Nickie and Jill setting off for a quiet
holiday in Wales. It ends with Nickie and Jill about to be photographed
for television newsreel. What can have happened between these two
times ?

Mona the Welsh Pony – Allen Seaby
Allen Seaby's stories of the ponies of the New Forest, Exmoor,
Dartmoor, and the Shetland Islands, are deservedly popular, not only
for the entertainment of the stories themselves, but also for their
accurage and affectionate studies of the wild life of the countryside
in which they live.
In this volume, Seaby turns to the mountain ponies of North Wales, and
tells the enthralling story of Mona against the background of her
native landscape, its people and their history.
Allan W Seaby's book "Mona the Welsh Pony" is set in a place near
Abermaw.

Abermaw is the Welsh for Barmouth, which does exist.


Battle for Destiny – Peter John Stephens
A young Welsh boy meets Harry Tudor, A Welshman with a claim to the
English throne historical fiction; a young Welsh lad exiled in a Breton
abbey is determined to go home to Wales, and aligns himself with
another Welshman who has a claim to the English throne;
Battle for Destiny - Peter John Stephens.
Ithel, the son of a Welsh minor lord escapes from drowning off the
coast of Brittany. Taken in by the church he fights for his destiny
until he falls into the path of Henry, Duke of Richmond. Later he joins
Richmond in France and, committed to his cause, is sent to Wales to
help prepare the Tudor invasion that eventually bring to the throne the
Lancastrian, Henry VII. He plays a vital part at the battle of Bosworth
where Richard III is defeated and killed. Most of the story in Wales is
in the fields and small dwellings around Milford Haven and then Carew
Castle.


Journey with a Secret – Showell Styles
Ann and John's hiking trip from their Welsh village to the sea turns
into a wild adventure, combining spies, a Hungarian girl, a misty moor
and all
Styles, Showell. Journey with a Secret. Meredith, 1969. 141p. $4.95.
Two English children on a Welsh walking tour pick up a runaway girl who is the
age of the older Davies, John; his sister is thirteen. Ilonka Kazinczy tells
John and Ann that the police are after her because she has run away from a cruel
uncle, but her story is suspicious: why should there be such an intensive hunt
for her? The truth soon comes out; Ilonka's uncle has been murdered and she is
carrying a secret document that will help organize a Hungarian freedom movement.
The incidents of chase and pursuit are full of action, the setting is
interesting (although there is a heavy dose of mountaineering detail for
non-climbers) and the style competent, but the plot is both contrived and
melodramatic.


A Shadow on the Sea – Tessa Theobald
A children's holiday overlooking a bay in Pembrokeshire. Four children
spend their March holiday alone in their family cottage overlooking a
bay in Pembrokeshire. The older children spend their time refurbishing
an old canoe, but Emma, the youngest, finds and rescues a guillemot
which has been coated by oil from ships and is unable to swim or fly.
The children clean it, and look after the bird, then find adventures
while exploring the bay.

Buried Alive – Jacqueline Wilson
Tim and Biscuits are having a brilliant holiday in Wales. Life is full
of icecream, sandcastles and picnics - until they meet the horrid bully
Prickle-Head and his side-kick Pinch-Face. Just as they are about to
despair, reinforcements arrive in an unexpected form.

Welsh Adventure – Viola Bayley
Mystery and excitement for Serena Hamble. Lively holiday adventures end
in deep mysterious waters.


The Haunting at Cliff House
Wales - unspecific
When her father inherits an estate from his great-aunt, Alison reluctantly
agrees to spend her summer in Wales. The dreary mansion called Pen-Y-Craig
(Welsh for Cliff House) is far from her Ottawa home, and her summer is far from
ordinary. Alison discovers an ancient diary, a haunted cave, and the story of a
young girl called Bronwen who lived at Cliff House in 1810. Alison sees spirits
and hears voices that compel her to unravel Bronwen's tangled and tragic
history. But can she learn from Bronwen's disasterous mistakes, and undo the
wrongs of the past and the present?" and "The story is set in the heart of Wales
in a house which Mr. Evans (The father) and Alison (the daughter) inherited from
a Great-Aunt. This house has a spirit trapped in time haunting it. Alison sees
visions of the ghost's (Bronwen's) life and is directed to an old diary. This
diary holds the keys to why Bronwen is trapped. Throughout the story Alison
seems to be going through the exactly the same situations as Bronwen did in
1810. Alison soon realizes what has happened to Bronwen and helps her change the
past. Throughout this plot Alison is going through tough times herself. Her
mother has long since passed away and her father has found a new woman
(Meiriona) who he has taken a liking to. Alison feels her territory has been
invaded by Meiriona and will ruin her tight knit relationship with her father.
In helping Bronwen out with her problem, Alison discovers that she can make
room, she doesn't own her father, and that everyone including her father has the
right to be happy."

Operation Footprint - Patricia Brooks.
The story is set in Llandudno, North Wales. The family on holiday come there
regularly each year and stay at a cottage on the less-frequented West Beach.
Most of their adventure features the Great Orme and their investigations by boat
of a small beach which is otherwise inaccessible. There are some quite exciting
episodes, though, after half-way it lapses into a pretty standard smugglers
story. The mystery may have been uncovered by the children but it is followed to
a conclusion by their uncle (very tradtional) who follows the clue to the
ring-leader of the gang to London in his fast car. Some details of this journey
and the previous vacation trips they go on may be worth following up.

Seal Secret – Aidan Chambers
William was thoroughly bored and fed up with everything about this
Welsh Holiday - but that was before he found out about Gwyn's secret..
A young boy endangers his own life when he sets out to release a
captive seal. William is unhappy when he sees the Welsh cottage his
parents had rented for their week's holiday, and he doesn't much like
Gwyn, the boy from the nearby farm

Three’s a Crowd - Michael Drin
The story of Peter and Jenny's summer holiday with their writer uncle
on the Welsh coast.

Esme and the Smugglers – Olive Duhy
The school moves to a castle in North Wales where Esme's aunt turns out
not to be all she should.

Beach Mystery – Frank Elias
"Death had been waiting for the Captain at Moelvre Bay on the night
that the Royal Sovereign foundered and sank; he cheated it then, but it
still lurked and lingered in wait.
Evan Hughes knew nothing of this when he went to spend the summer with
his aunt at Menai Bridge; yet he was soon to realize that over her
household hovered a shadow which in some unfathomable way was related
to the tragedy at Moelvre Bay. With a lad's sensitive feeling for crime
and disaster, Evan had to visit the spot where the ship had gone down.
A sense of premonition possessed him before he went; having been there
and talked to the man with the glass eye, the dreadful fascination of
the place turned to fear - fear not of human agency,but of a power
beyond him that was sinister and oppressive.
Gradually and inexplicably he experienced a compelling sense of being
drawn into the Captain's affairs. The bay had an ungovernable
influence over him. Death was not to be cheated a second time."

The Peace Seekers – George Finkel
A tale set in North Wales in 1170

Telling the Sea – Pauline Fisk
Follows the fortunes of Nona, her mother and Nona's younger sister
Sharon. The family runs away together to the seaside village in Wales
which was the focus of Nona's mother's own childhood happiness. The
author also wrote "Midnight Blue", winner of the 1990 Smarties Prize.


M.Frow -Four Stowaways and Anna
A wild chase to Wales in pursuit of War Office secrets.

The Intelligence Corps Saves the Island – M.Frow

Two sets of twins on holidays in a small island off the coast of South
Wales find themselves looking into the case of the disappearance of
title deeds to their uncle's island and a mysterious stranger claiming
possession of the island.