Francesca Simon, Guest Editor February 2021: "I first read Philippa Pearce’s Tom's Midnight Garden as an adult, staying up all night to finish it, and sobbing at the end. It’s about Tom, sent away to relatives while his brother is sick, who discovers that when the grandfather clock strikes 13 that the modern world disappears and he is transported back to the magnificent Victorian garden which once existed at the back, and meets Hatty, the girl who once lived there. I envy anyone reading this book for the first time."
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This is one of the most touching and magical children’s books I’ve ever read and it’s one that’s stayed as fresh in my mind as if I’d just read it yesterday. Tom’s imaginary garden is beautifully portrayed and the characters and situations within are richly satisfying and the poignancy of the moments are cherished. Children will love the story and it is as relevant now as it was some 40 years ago when it was first published.
When Tom hears the grandfather clock strike thirteen he is not prepared for what is going to happen. Outside the back door is a garden, which everyone tells him doesn't exist. But the magical place in which Tom finds himself is certainly a garden - his midnight garden. This book won The Carnegie Medal when it was first published in 1958.
Philippa Pearce spent her childhood in Great Shelford, a village near Cambridge, and was the youngest of four children of a flour-miller and corn-merchant. The village, the river, and the countryside in which she lived appear more or less plainly in Minnow on the Say, and Tom's Midnight Garden.
Philippa later went on to study English and History at Cambridge University. She worked for the BBC as a scriptwriter and producer, and then in publishing as an editor. She has written many books including the Modern Classic, Tom's Midnight Garden, for which she won the Carnegie Medal. She has been awarded the OBE for services to Children's Literature. Sadly, Philippa died in 2006, at the age of 86.
