Hindbury’s Run: An Illustrated Animal Story

By Madeleine Watson

Hindbury’s Run was written in 1978. I would have been 13. I was living in a run-down cottage with my parents and siblings at the time. My childhood appeared innocent, cosseted; I kept a diary, wrote stories and painted.

On the lead-up, I suffered terrible health niggles. I have unsettled nights, am forgetful, have ‘ulcer pains in my limbs’ and depression.

Hindbury’s Run appears to be nothing untoward. It is an animal story starring sheepdogs who fear a raid on their farm. Little did I realise a sinister message runs beneath every paragraph. A saboteur also lurks within the farm animal company. This saboteur doesn’t want me to write this story.

Why? I wonder. And why do cripples, drowning, disfigured faces and deaths in caves recur in my stories?

Three years previously, I had been reading George Orwell’s Animal Farm. It echoes events leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917 where brutal dictatorship results. At the time, a demon in my head made life hell. I avoided my bed at night and kept the lights on. I now realise Animal Farm had provided subconscious notions of an appalling past. Hindbury’s Run appears to have resulted, only the theme for my farm story vastly differs to Orwell’s.

My other book, Tales from Daler Cottage uncovers the message within this and my other children’s stories. But the reason for my PTSD will be given at the end of this book.

Hindbury’s Run would remain in the dark until the summer of 2017.

My story has undergone necessary edits preserving the story and the tone of the young writer that I was. With illustrations.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Madeleine Watson
• Release date: Mar 19, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463382875

Madeleine Watson

Madeleine Watson lives in the UK and writes under a pseudonym.At the age of 51, she discovered she had been repeatedly raped at the age of 3 by an uncle who shared her toddlerhood home.During oblivion, she kept a diary, wrote children’s mysteries, novels and short stories. She also went to art school for 5 years. Unbeknown to her, clues to her horrific toddlerhood had seeped into her creations.How she finally learned the truth is described in her books along with further revelations. Having lived through this experience, she is able to describe what life has been like for someone whose toddlerhood has been brutalised prior to the dawning of her conscious awareness.

Book preview

HINDBURY’S RUN

An Illustrated Animal Story

Madeleine Watson

Introduction

Hindbury’s Run

Revisit to Hindbury’s Run

The Message

Other books by the author

Introduction

Hindbury’s Run was written when I was thirteen. It would have been December 1978 and I was living in a run-down cottage with my parents and five siblings. My childhood appeared innocent, cosseted. I was drawing, painting, devising quizzes and I kept a diary which enables me to examine the circumstances surrounding the writing of this story.

On the lead-up, I suffered terrible health niggles. I am forgetful, I describe ‘ulcer pains in my limbs’ and become depressed. Between the 10th and 14th of December, I would feverishly write this story before pausing and reading it to two of my sisters. On the 17th, I would finish the first draft and spend the day reading it to myself. Melancholia would close in as Christmas approached. For the next four days, I would undergo a writing marathon where I would work on this story all over again and push it to the end.

This all seems odd.

On face value, Hindbury’s Run appears to be nothing untoward. It is an animal story starring sheepdogs who fear a raid on their farm.

But this is no ordinary story.

For starters, shaggy dogs with tan attributes persist in my other stories for some reason. At the time, I had no memory of a dog fitting that description. Furthermore, deaths in caves, cripples, disfigured faces and ponds recur.

Why is this?

Three years previously, I was reading George Orwell’s Animal Farm at school. It would have been 1975 and I had been nine. At the time, a nameless demon in my head made my life hell. I avoided my bed and I kept the lights on at night.

Orwell’s book, published in 1945, echoes events leading to the Russian Revolution of 1917. Brutal dictatorship results. Orwell’s book serves as satire and a warning. The reason for my demon was that Animal Farm had provided subconscious reminders of an unrealised past. Hindbury’s Run appears to have resulted, only the theme for my farm story vastly differs to Orwell’s.

My story has undergone necessary edits for optimal reading experience. This entails preserving the story as well as the tone of the young writer that I was.

My sisters enjoyed Hindbury’s Run. But beneath lurks a sinister message I would fail to see for almost forty years. My other book, Tales from Daler Cottage explains its full meaning.

But the truth will be revealed at the end of this story.

Unless indicated, all the illustrations were completed current to this book’s production. Otherwise, they were completed in 1978, when I was thirteen years old.

HINDBURY’S RUN

Chapter 1: Night at the Farm

The farm stood on Hindbury Hill, north of England. It was a small place with chickens, horses, a couple of cows, three dogs and a cat. A lot of work had to be done, yet the farm earned very little. Popcorn, the mother hen, laid eggs and the cows provided milk. In Hindbury Town the graceful horses and smart sheepdogs won money and trophies. But most of the earnings came from the land: manures, fruit and vegetables. In winter, logs were collected for firewood and