Tom's Midnight Garden

'Tom's Midnight Garden' is Phillipa Pearce's award-winning novel, as well as her best work - all her other writings are measured by this, and so far none have quite reached its peak. It is a time-slip story, which means I was somewhat cross-eyed by the end of it (I usually avoid time-travelling adventures like the plauge on account of the 'confusing ordering' of them all), but Pearce keeps to all the laws of physics that would apply if one actually *could* time-travel. The real beauty of the story is not the time-travelling at all, but the realism of all the characters, the profound themes concerning the passage of time and growing up, the simple but true friendship between Tom and Hatty, and the idea of a secret garden, not separated from the rest of the world by a mere wall like in [...], but by Space and Time themselves.Tom Long is being sent from his home and the promise of a long, lazy summer to his Uncle Alan and Aunt Gwen's dreary, boring flat, as his brother Peter has the measles. Frustrated and rude to begin with, he lives a confined and utterly restricted half-life within their cold and unwelcoming home. In fact, the only thing that proves that time is indeed moving at its normal pace is the ticking of the ancient grandfather clock belonging to old Mrs Bartholemew, the land-lady who lives upstairs. The clock keeps strange time however, often it gives more or less chimes than it's supposed to, and one night Tom is sure that he hears it chime the hour thirteen. Creeping downstairs to investigate, he discovers instead that the backdoor opens out into a beautiful, silent, vast garden. He soon becomes a regular visitor, but only by night, for in the daytime the door instead opens out onto a grimy yard. But in the garden he meets Hatty, a lonely little girl under the tyranny of her unkind aunt and three cousins, and the only being that can actually see him! After the friendship is made, the real adventures start, but threading through all of this is the continual mystery - how did the garden get there? Who is Hatty? Where did she and the garden come from? Are they ghosts or merely images from the past? *Why* is the garden there in the first place? Pearce treats what is essentially her main character - the garden itself - not as a strange, utterly abnormal event, nor as a comfitable, familiar occurance, but as a ghostly, yet steady place. Tom's reactions to it, from his initial awe, to fright, to intoxication with it is vividly and realistically portrayed so that we too honestly share in these emotions.It is fascinating to read of Tom's explorations of the garden and the twofold freedom he experiences - first that he is away from the regulations of his aunt and uncle, and second that of his invisibility to the denizens of the garden. Pearce creates beautiful descriptive passages of the garden and surrounding grounds, but marks them with intriguing sentences such as: 'Tom often had the feeling of people having just gone, and an uncomfortable fe

I first read this book as a young teenager and no matter how many times I re-read it, I am always moved almost to tears by the depth of feeling the author writes about. A simple concept such as loneliness connects two characters across the abyss of time. The author skillfully handles the idea of the past existing concurrently with the present. The simple wish for a friend is the underlying force of this story. This is a book that once I read, I never forgot.

With the possible exception of Falkner's "Moonfleet" this is my all-time favourite children's book. I loved it as a child, read it as an adolescent, enjoyed it as an adult, & read it aloud to my children as a father. The story here is how a boy finds his way into the past of a house he is visiting, and his growing fascination with the life of a little girl in that past. The style of writing is so matter of fact, i think i truly believed as a child because there is no sense of "look how cute this idea is" you often get in books of the sort. The reader is invited to fully participate in and identify with both Tom and Hattie, and their growing friendship. The climax of the book, as Tom discovers what has truly been happening, never fails to move me to tears; just thinking about Mrs. Bartholomew's line right now is tightening my throat. Read this book.

"Tom's Midnight Garden" belongs on any "Best Novels of the 20th Century" list. I came to "Midnight Garden" through Pearce's other books. Read her ghost stories (many about animals), and tales of English urban and suburban children's lives. Ms. Pearce never talks down to children, treating her readers and creations with respect. Also, the adult insights and regrets that we may have forgotten experiencing when we were young, abound in her work. She is very wise. A quick example: A boy dreads a family get together for great grandmother's 100th birthday celebration because of a vicious, bullying cousin. Nevertheless, the terrible reunion day arrives. During a game of hide and seek, as the bully chases our hero, he happens to duck into a quiet room only to find that the 100 year old grandmother has been warehoused there, wheeled out of the way at her own party. Even though age and infirmity have rendered her hardly able to speak, it seems that she senses the boy's fear as the door handle turns and the bully comes inside. As the bully advances into the room, it's silence is broken by a hideous, ghostly wail. Bully runs terrified from the hellish moan, and great-grandmother's face has a slight smile on it, the only (other) physical action she can manifest. She has moaned and (do I remember correctly?) popped her teeth out and protected the boy the only way she can. But that's not all. Our boy gets away, but thinking back on the incident, wishes he had properly thanked great grandmother for her help. (And here is the greatness of Pearce's art) The obligations not met, connections never made, the friend in need never thanked, the other-aged comrade with whom we now know we should have connected, the good words not spoken, Pearce always has woven into the cloth of the story. The immensity of life and our day-late-dollar-short performance in the world is there to be recognized along with the humor and action of the story. This is bittersweet, profound fiction but no moral is grafted on to her tales. It is there to be seen for he (or she) who has eyes with which to see it. Philippa Pearce, who was a BBC radio dramatist before becoming a children's author, is one of the very fine writers of our century.