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The Midwinter Watch
One hundred years ago, a valuable timepiece was stolen from Silas Heron and the theft blamed on a beggar boy. But, as Sophie, Jack and Simon discover, the truth is far more complex. A sinister stranger appears at the abandoned railway station, who seems to have some tie to shifty Reg Boston.
195 pages, Hardcover
First published December 7, 1998
24 people want to read
About the author
John Gordon
38 books28 followersLibrarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
John Gordon was an English writer of adolescent supernatural fiction. He was the author of fifteen fantasy novels (including The Giant Under The Snow), four short story collections, over fifty short stories, and a teenage memoir. For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gor...
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
John Gordon was an English writer of adolescent supernatural fiction. He was the author of fifteen fantasy novels (including The Giant Under The Snow), four short story collections, over fifty short stories, and a teenage memoir. For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gor...
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 5, 2026
Can be borrowed for free online from OpenLibrary.org (05/01/2026)
Not bad - something about the structure was unsatisfying, but I can't quite put my finger on it. It starts in too soon and too robustly regarding bereaved Sophie's feelings about her two-year widowed mother and the men who appear to be wooing her. While this remains a minor theme throughout, it came across a little heavy so early on.
What this book is really about is the small village of Lott's Bend, snowed in at Christmastime, and time-travelling secrets of some of their ancestors. There's one of my favourite tropes of the blacksmith being involved in something mystical, there are phantom trains along torn-up tracks, the eerie ghost of 'the starvelling boy', and three adolescents: Jack, Sophie, and Simon.
What I don't like about John Gordon's books is his emphasis on the awkwardness of children-becoming-horny-teenagers. It might be because I'm a middle aged heterosexual female and that I can't relate to the confused urges of a young teenage boy, but I find Gordon dwells too much on this. Lines like:
Same with Sophie's side - her initial discomfort at her mum being courted by enthusiastic suitors remains all the way to the end of the story, without much progression at all. So why dwell on it, is what I'm saying: it isn't developed, explored, or really central to the plot. Again, awkward and clunky and messy. Maybe this is realistic and I just read too much fiction.
Anyway, PLOT-WISE, it's alright. I don't really like any of the villains (as in I don't love to hate them). There were some time-travel bits that left me questioning the paradigm, but hey, don't look under that rock, right? I really enjoyed little bits involving clockwork and hiding-in-plain-sight tricks.
There are a few books that I think belong in a collection (there are so many Christmas Listopia lists that I don't want to start another) - these are books I'd recommend to a middle grade boy for reading over Christmas break (though obviously anyone might enjoy them, middle-aged women included):
The Dark Is Rising
"Fair's Fair"
Christmas Spirit: Two Stories
Stubby Pringle's Christmas
& The Midwinter Watch
(for a gory YA horror that happens to occur over Christmas: Rattus Rex)
Not bad - something about the structure was unsatisfying, but I can't quite put my finger on it. It starts in too soon and too robustly regarding bereaved Sophie's feelings about her two-year widowed mother and the men who appear to be wooing her. While this remains a minor theme throughout, it came across a little heavy so early on.
What this book is really about is the small village of Lott's Bend, snowed in at Christmastime, and time-travelling secrets of some of their ancestors. There's one of my favourite tropes of the blacksmith being involved in something mystical, there are phantom trains along torn-up tracks, the eerie ghost of 'the starvelling boy', and three adolescents: Jack, Sophie, and Simon.
What I don't like about John Gordon's books is his emphasis on the awkwardness of children-becoming-horny-teenagers. It might be because I'm a middle aged heterosexual female and that I can't relate to the confused urges of a young teenage boy, but I find Gordon dwells too much on this. Lines like:
Sophie shivered. Jack did not know whether he was allowed to put his arm around her; if she had been only slightly less pretty he would have felt safe enough to do so.There's nothing wrong with this, it's just that there are multiple of these sort of lines chucked in seemingly at random, and there isn't a progression or realisation or anything. It reads like, "Ow, hormone surge. Umm... awkward" (actual plot and content) "Another hormonal surge - mega awkward - Imma gonna ignore it." (story moves on) "Argh, testosterone injection! Umm... I'm so confused and conflicted." (more story happens, and it ends). It's not terrible, it's just as awkward and cringey as actual adolescence, and I guess I'm always hoping for something less messy and more tied into the plot with actual meaning.
Same with Sophie's side - her initial discomfort at her mum being courted by enthusiastic suitors remains all the way to the end of the story, without much progression at all. So why dwell on it, is what I'm saying: it isn't developed, explored, or really central to the plot. Again, awkward and clunky and messy. Maybe this is realistic and I just read too much fiction.
Anyway, PLOT-WISE, it's alright. I don't really like any of the villains (as in I don't love to hate them). There were some time-travel bits that left me questioning the paradigm, but hey, don't look under that rock, right? I really enjoyed little bits involving clockwork and hiding-in-plain-sight tricks.
There are a few books that I think belong in a collection (there are so many Christmas Listopia lists that I don't want to start another) - these are books I'd recommend to a middle grade boy for reading over Christmas break (though obviously anyone might enjoy them, middle-aged women included):
The Dark Is Rising
"Fair's Fair"
Christmas Spirit: Two Stories
Stubby Pringle's Christmas
& The Midwinter Watch
(for a gory YA horror that happens to occur over Christmas: Rattus Rex)
March 10, 2017
A short and easy read, this seems to be aimed at a younger age group than the two John Gordon novels that I've read recently. In this, two boys, Jack and Simon, and their friend, Sophie, are caught up in a mystery of the past while their village is snowed in around Christmas. Sophie is unhappy following the death of her father a few years before; her mother has more or less caved in to passivity and they are both staying at the gatehouse of a nearby manor house. Sophie likes the house's owner, Toby, but fears and distrusts his friend who is living in the gatehouse and has 'offered' to take them in when their house became snowbound. Reg Boston is a nasty piece of work, whom Sophie once caught ransacking her dad's old papers, though she can't convince her mother.
As the story starts, the three children encounter an odd man by the abandoned railway station. Like many old branch lines during the 1950s railway closures, the tracks have been removed and the station left to crumble, but despite this, they witness a stream train rolling out of the station. The man later turns out to be Toby's cousin Wilf, from a part of the family who stole a prized possession of his great-great- grandfather Silas: the Railway Timepiece. This is a magical invention which Silas designed, but which was buit by Jack's ancestor who was the local engineer/blacksmith. The timepiece can be synchronised with the station clock and Reg - who conspires with Wilf - has set that clock going so that they can bring back trains from the days of the station's Victorian heyday. But the prize they are really after is the Midwinter Watch, which Toby has never been able to find, and which would enable whoever uses it to go back to the Christmas when Silas was robbed of his fortune, supposedly by a boy known as the Starveling Boy, whose ghost still haunts the village. Wilf and Reg are bent on getting the watch because they can then discover where the fortune in gold sovereigns was hidden, and steal it in the present day.
As I've said, it was an easy read and has some nice set pieces. In some respects it reminded me a little of John Masefield's The Box of Delights, with its winter setting and sly villains. The children are differentiated: one boy, Simon, is the scientific sceptic whereas Jack is more intuitive and physically brave. Sophie is more psychic and is open to the influence of the Starveling Boy. Together the children work out where the watch may be, but the villains are always one step ahead of them, so it is not clear right up to the end whether or not they will prevail. A nice fairly simple and straightforward adventure/mystery story, but not one I would keep and re-read.
As the story starts, the three children encounter an odd man by the abandoned railway station. Like many old branch lines during the 1950s railway closures, the tracks have been removed and the station left to crumble, but despite this, they witness a stream train rolling out of the station. The man later turns out to be Toby's cousin Wilf, from a part of the family who stole a prized possession of his great-great- grandfather Silas: the Railway Timepiece. This is a magical invention which Silas designed, but which was buit by Jack's ancestor who was the local engineer/blacksmith. The timepiece can be synchronised with the station clock and Reg - who conspires with Wilf - has set that clock going so that they can bring back trains from the days of the station's Victorian heyday. But the prize they are really after is the Midwinter Watch, which Toby has never been able to find, and which would enable whoever uses it to go back to the Christmas when Silas was robbed of his fortune, supposedly by a boy known as the Starveling Boy, whose ghost still haunts the village. Wilf and Reg are bent on getting the watch because they can then discover where the fortune in gold sovereigns was hidden, and steal it in the present day.
As I've said, it was an easy read and has some nice set pieces. In some respects it reminded me a little of John Masefield's The Box of Delights, with its winter setting and sly villains. The children are differentiated: one boy, Simon, is the scientific sceptic whereas Jack is more intuitive and physically brave. Sophie is more psychic and is open to the influence of the Starveling Boy. Together the children work out where the watch may be, but the villains are always one step ahead of them, so it is not clear right up to the end whether or not they will prevail. A nice fairly simple and straightforward adventure/mystery story, but not one I would keep and re-read.
December 24, 2017
THE MIDWINTER WATCH is another snowy children's fantasy tale from East Anglian author John Gordon. It's the second book I've read of his, following on from the superior THE GIANT UNDER THE SNOW, and once again he summons up a chilly atmosphere and a trio of children battling against the odds. This one's a shorter book, a snappy read, and a quite straightforward story too about the hunt for the titular item which bestows the ability to time travel on those who operate it. The kids feel true to life, the adults make for imposing villains, and best of all is the tragic, haunting spectre of the Starveling Boy.
June 16, 2022
The Midwinter Watch by John Gordon
A century ago, at the close of the Victorian era, a fortune in gold sovereigns and a unique timepiece were stolen from old Silas Heron. The crime was blamed on a homeless beggar boy, but this was never proven as the items were never recovered and the boy vanished without a trace.
The Midwinter Watch is another snowbound fantasy story for children with an atmosphere not too dissimilar to The Giant Under the Snow. Again, we have a trio of children (this time Sophie, Jack and Simon) battling against all odds to thwart the forces of evil, which this time are all too human in nature.
The tale begins with the three children encountering a sinister stranger at an abandoned railway station. Like branch lines which were closed in rural areas in the 1960s in England, the tracks had been removed and the station left to deteriorate. However, despite this, the children see a stream train moving out of the station. This part really resonated with me because there was such a station near to where I lived when I was small. Blacon Station outside Chester closed in 1968, but the buildings and tracks were still there until the 1980s and held a sort of magnetic attraction for young people in their early teens, probably due to their disused nature and consequent spookiness. John Gordon was therefore here tapping into a feeling many readers will be familiar with, especially those who grew up in the times when it was relatively safe for children to wander and explore the seemingly more mysterious areas of their local environment, and before the distractions of electronic devices and social media.
Two watches feature in this story, the Railway Timepiece and the Midwinter Watch. The Railway Timepiece went missing in the days of Silas Heron after his fortune was stolen, and the rightful heir of the old man, Toby Heron, is not even sure whether the Midwinter Watch ever existed. Each watch allows for a subtly different kind of time travel, and if the Midwinter Watch could be found it might enable the user to recover what was apparently stolen a century ago: a king’s ransom in gold coins.
Regarding the personalities of the children and their interactions with each other, there are clear similarities to other works by John Gordon. For example, Sophie could correspond to Jonquil in The Giant Under the Snow, since she is more sensitive to the paranormal and is therefore able to take the lead throughout much of the adventure. Indeed, at first only she can see the apparition of the Starveling Boy which appears at intervals to guide them. Simon is an Arf-like character in that he is highly skeptical and demands scientific proof for everything, often dismissing the experiences of Sophie and Jack as products of overactive imaginations. Jack is the exception, and does not really have a counterpart in The Giant Under the Snow. Jack is intuitive, daring, and quite impulsive. The contrast between young people who believe and others who find reasons not to is a device which appears in most of the novels I have read by this author.
Unlike many of his other books, The Midwinter Watch features fully human villains as the enemy. Tony Heron’s cousin Will and Toby’s former friend Reg Boston are fairly standard rogues who seem to be motivated by nothing more than simple avarice. They intend to use the Railway Timepiece, along with all manner of deceit and coercion, to discover where the Midwinter Watch is hidden. They are cunning and crafty and seem to turn each victory achieved by the children into a defeat. However, as in most tales of this kind, in the end it is the perceptive powers of the children and the action they take which lead to a satisfying conclusion.
I found this book to contain a more straightforward and conventional plot than the other books by John Gordon I have read. The atmosphere and tension are present, but not as intensely as in his other works. And as a collector of children’s timeslip literature, I certainly appreciated the inclusion of time-travel as an integral part of the story.
However, of the books by John Gordon I have read, The Edge of the World still remains my firm favorite. The House on the Brink comes in a close second, and I would place Fen Runners and The Giant Under the Snow together in third place. The Midwinter Watch was entertaining, but I feel I must rank it in fourth place. The Quelling Eye is therefore still my least favorite so far, although it was far from unenjoyable.
A century ago, at the close of the Victorian era, a fortune in gold sovereigns and a unique timepiece were stolen from old Silas Heron. The crime was blamed on a homeless beggar boy, but this was never proven as the items were never recovered and the boy vanished without a trace.
The Midwinter Watch is another snowbound fantasy story for children with an atmosphere not too dissimilar to The Giant Under the Snow. Again, we have a trio of children (this time Sophie, Jack and Simon) battling against all odds to thwart the forces of evil, which this time are all too human in nature.
The tale begins with the three children encountering a sinister stranger at an abandoned railway station. Like branch lines which were closed in rural areas in the 1960s in England, the tracks had been removed and the station left to deteriorate. However, despite this, the children see a stream train moving out of the station. This part really resonated with me because there was such a station near to where I lived when I was small. Blacon Station outside Chester closed in 1968, but the buildings and tracks were still there until the 1980s and held a sort of magnetic attraction for young people in their early teens, probably due to their disused nature and consequent spookiness. John Gordon was therefore here tapping into a feeling many readers will be familiar with, especially those who grew up in the times when it was relatively safe for children to wander and explore the seemingly more mysterious areas of their local environment, and before the distractions of electronic devices and social media.
Two watches feature in this story, the Railway Timepiece and the Midwinter Watch. The Railway Timepiece went missing in the days of Silas Heron after his fortune was stolen, and the rightful heir of the old man, Toby Heron, is not even sure whether the Midwinter Watch ever existed. Each watch allows for a subtly different kind of time travel, and if the Midwinter Watch could be found it might enable the user to recover what was apparently stolen a century ago: a king’s ransom in gold coins.
Regarding the personalities of the children and their interactions with each other, there are clear similarities to other works by John Gordon. For example, Sophie could correspond to Jonquil in The Giant Under the Snow, since she is more sensitive to the paranormal and is therefore able to take the lead throughout much of the adventure. Indeed, at first only she can see the apparition of the Starveling Boy which appears at intervals to guide them. Simon is an Arf-like character in that he is highly skeptical and demands scientific proof for everything, often dismissing the experiences of Sophie and Jack as products of overactive imaginations. Jack is the exception, and does not really have a counterpart in The Giant Under the Snow. Jack is intuitive, daring, and quite impulsive. The contrast between young people who believe and others who find reasons not to is a device which appears in most of the novels I have read by this author.
Unlike many of his other books, The Midwinter Watch features fully human villains as the enemy. Tony Heron’s cousin Will and Toby’s former friend Reg Boston are fairly standard rogues who seem to be motivated by nothing more than simple avarice. They intend to use the Railway Timepiece, along with all manner of deceit and coercion, to discover where the Midwinter Watch is hidden. They are cunning and crafty and seem to turn each victory achieved by the children into a defeat. However, as in most tales of this kind, in the end it is the perceptive powers of the children and the action they take which lead to a satisfying conclusion.
I found this book to contain a more straightforward and conventional plot than the other books by John Gordon I have read. The atmosphere and tension are present, but not as intensely as in his other works. And as a collector of children’s timeslip literature, I certainly appreciated the inclusion of time-travel as an integral part of the story.
However, of the books by John Gordon I have read, The Edge of the World still remains my firm favorite. The House on the Brink comes in a close second, and I would place Fen Runners and The Giant Under the Snow together in third place. The Midwinter Watch was entertaining, but I feel I must rank it in fourth place. The Quelling Eye is therefore still my least favorite so far, although it was far from unenjoyable.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews