Tom's Midnight Garden - Philippa Pearce

Philippa Pearce's novel, Tom's Midnight Garden won the prestigious Carnegie Medal in 1958 and has been dramatised a number of times (more on that shortly).

When Tom Long's younger brother, Peter, gets measles (back in the days before all children were automatically immunised against this illness), Tom is sent to stay with his aunt and uncle in their small flat which has no garden. Since Tom may be infectious, he's not allowed to go out and, lacking exercise and eating more than usual (thanks to the rich diet his aunt is supplying), Tom is not sleeping at night. The only thing that interests Tom is the strange grandfather clock in the hall of the big house which has been divided into flats. The clock seems to have its own ideas about time, especially after midnight when it's in the habit of striking thirteen! Finding himself compelled to investigate, Tom slips out of the back door, whilst his aunt and uncle sleep, and finds himself in an astonishing garden that's in full bloom, instead of in the expected back yard containing dustbins and a car under a tarpaulin.

Tom explores the garden, rather nervously at first and discovers that four children live in the house with this magnificent garden: three are boys and one is a girl. Unfortunately for Tom, who would have liked to play with James, only the boys' cousin, Hatty, seems able to see him - and she believes he's a ghost. In fact, Tom does behave rather like a ghost - he's able to walk through walls and doors, and he leaves no footprints. But the pair make friend and have plays some wonderful, absorbing games, climbing trees and hiding in special places. Only Abel, the gardener, seems to pay any attention to Hatty's strange, solitary games, and if he can see anything at all he says nothing about it, merely hanging on to his Bible.

However, something strange happens to Time, even in this fantastic garden, because although Tom goes to play with Hatty every night during his stay with his aunt and uncle, she seems to be growing up fast. And as Hatty grows up, Tom seems to her to be growing fainter. They manage to share one last adventure before Tom has to go back to his parents and brother, and the start of the new school year. This adventure involves a pair of skating boots, a secret hiding place, and the two children wearing the same pair of skates at the same time.

This is a terrific story and I can quite see why it's become a classic of children's literature. It's been dramatised on a number of occasions: the BBC produced a full-cast dramatisation audiobook, as well as filming it as a mini-series more than once. There's also a full-length movie. I shall have a look for the movie or one of the mini-series in a few months time (once the images from the book are out of my head and I can do the visual dramatisation justice).

Minnow on the Say - Philippa Pearce

I reported on Christmas Eve, that Philippa Pearce had passed away. At the time, I had only read and reviewed one of her books - the very charming, A Dog So Small, which I read and loved as a child (despite being a cat lover!). I'm waiting for Pearce's classic novel Tom's Midnight Garden to be available, but in the meantime, I borrowed Minnow on the Say on the recommendation of David Langford (in his award winning Ansible ezine).

Minnow on the Say isn't fantasy - it's the tale of a treasure hunt, set in 1930s England when David Moss, the middle child of a bus driver and a housewife, finds a lovely, if badly neglected canoe bumping up again his father's landing stage the River Say is swollen by rain. He desperately wants to keep the canoe, but his father urges him to find the owner, who turns out to be Adam Codling. Adam's the last of the now-impoverished Codling family who have occupied the banks of the Say for centuries. The only way that the Codling estate can be saved (and Adam avoid being sent to relatives in Birmingham), is if he and his new friend, David, can find the family treasure that a Codling ancestor hid during the late 16th century, just before the Spanish Armada set sail. The boys have only a single clue, a four-line poem, and their canoe, which David has named the Minnow. They spend the summer holiday on the treasure hunt, covering a lot of the local countryside. The book also covers a lot of territory: poverty, mourning, greed, the nature of marriage and of friendship, class relations, village life, and more.

However, you shouldn't read this book expecting misty nostalgia. Pearce's love of village and river life shines through the prose - she grew up on the River Cam in the village of Great Shelford near Cambridge - but so does her experience of the London Blitz and the trauma of World War II. You might never read a more painful account of the ravages of mourning as those scenes in which Adam’s grandfather, whose only son was killed during the Great War, fails to remember that his son is long dead and the boy who shares his home is actually his grandson. Adam's mother died shortly after giving birth to Adam, her own grief for her husband was as strong as her father-in-law's, so Adam has been brought up by his Aunt Dinah. She is a strong character but resigned to the fate that seems about to befall the last of the Codlings, since the treasure has never been found.

This is a lovely book that manages to maintain the suspense through 26 leisurely chapters - I highly recommend Minnow on the Say.