Help me find this children's time slip novel I read in the 80s/90s please

[TheIncredibleBookEatingManchot]

I'm afraid I don't remember much about it, except that I loved it so I this could be pretty tough...

It was about a girl who I think was on holiday in a small village. It was definitely somewhere quite rural. Somehow she slips into the past, I think she goes back and forth between past and present in the book.

Towards the end the villagers in the past have a party or fête of some kind in a field. A young couple in love are dancing together. Then the girl's back in the present and she sees an oak tree that the young couples' initials were carved in long ago and there's something about somewhere that man will always be dancing with his sweetheart.

I read it in primary school so it can't have been published any later than 1991. I think it had quite an old feel about it though, so it could have been published much earlier than that.

This has been bugging me for years and years. I thought I had found it a few years ago when out of nowhere the words "A Stitch in Time by Penelope Lively" came into my head and I googled it and discovered it actually existed. But although there are some similarities, girl on holiday, time slip, oak tree, there are no dancing villagers carving their initials. I read A Traveller in Time by Alison Uttley recently after seeing it mentioned somewhere on Mumsnet, but though I think the book I remember had a similar feel to it it's not the one.

Please, please can anyone help me?

Was the main character called Minty (short for Araminta?) I have vague memories of a similar time slip book and that was the girls name. And that the book had a green and yellow cover.
Not much help with the title though

Not the time travellers series of books is it?

Isn't Araminta "Moondial" by Helen Cresswell?

I'm pretty sure it's The Secret World of Polly Flint by Helen Cresswell. It was published in 1983.

Frenchfancie I think you're thinking of Moondial by Helen Cresswell, which is a brilliant time slip book, but not the one I'm trying to remember. Thanks for replying!

justtakeyourtime I'm not sure if it was part of a series, but I'll look that up and see. Thanks!

Charlotte Sometimes? I think she was at boarding school though.

CatChant I think it could actually be that one!!! Thank you

Tom's Midnight Garden?
Are you sure its not the Alison Uttley book, I read that in the 80s, sounds familiar.

I would say Moondial or the Secret World of Polly Flint.

A traveller in time was one of my favourite books as a child. I'm hoping my daughter falls for it too.

@TheIncredibleBookEatingManchot

CatChant I think it could actually be that one!!! Thank you

Pleasure.

I've just fished out our copy (mine, passed on to DD) and all the elements you mentioned are there.

I've always loved a time-slip story. As well as the ones already listed by other posters I'd recommend Antonia Barber's The Ghosts (also published as The Amazing Mr Blunden) and Pamela Sykes' Come Back Lucy.

ChrissyPlummer It's not Charlotte Sometimes, I remember borrowing that one from the school library when I was in year 7, and you're right it was set in a boarding school.

trickyex It's not Tom's Midnight Garden, I still have my childhood copy of that somewhere, and I remember the TV series too.

Thanks for replying.

Oh, yes I remember The Amazing Mr Blunden too.

Thinking about it, a lot of the books I read as a pre-teen seemed to have some kind of time slip or time travel element to them.

The Children of Green Knowe was another good one.

Oh yes Come Back Lucy. Wasnt that a TV series too?
This thread is bring back childhood memories...

You have reminded me of one I read where the girl appears in a pigpen! I think maybe she came forward from Tudor times though.

Come Back Lucy was quite terrifying at the time. The ghostly jealous Alice and the icy puddle. Both the book and the tv adaptation gave me nightmares!

I loved Charlotte Sometimes and was so glad when my daughter was given it

A traveler in time is a wonderful book I’ve got it on kindle, audible and managed to get the dvd as well. After years of not knowing it had ever been filmed.

The Children of Green Knowe is my favourite but I love all the Green Knowe books. Though An Enemy at Green Knowe is very dark in places and I remember feeling quite uneasy after first reading it as a child. I've been to see the real Green Knowe - Hemingford Grey in Cambridgeshire - and the house and garden are lovely.

I loved both the book of Come Back Lucy and the 1970s TV adaptation. Some episodes, sadly not all, are on YouTube. I thought it was very well done. Phyllida Law (Emma Thompson's mum) was super as Aunt Gwen.

@FrenchFancie you mean Moondial. Set at Belton House in Lincolnshire. Wonderful book.

I loved the secret world of Polly flint, but found it very creepy and unnerving. I think it was the line drawing illustrations. There was a sort of helplessness about it! Very evocative though.

When Marnie Was There? Or was that a girl from the past coming to the present?

Could by either "The Book of Tomorrow" by Cecilis Aherne or " A Pattern of Roses " by K.M Peyton.

The Green Knowe TV series was really good too. Nice to see another DWJ fan @CatChant!

Of course, The Spellcoats! Likewise @Tanaqui . I haven't seen the Green Knowe TV series. Mental note now made to look for it.

I loved 'When Marie Was There'. Not the book but well worth a read for people who love a timeslip!

I mean not the book described by the OP