The children's fantasy novel, Tom’s Midnight Garden, has been delighting kids and adults for more than 60 years, thanks to its timeless storyline and characters. Written by English author Philippa Pearce in 1958, it won the Library Association's Carnegie Medal as the year's most outstanding children's book.
The author, born in 1920 in Great Shelford, Cambridgeshire, hadn't started school until the age of eight due to ill health, but she was exceptionally talented and won a scholarship to read English and History at Girton College, Cambridge.
She began writing in 1951, during a lengthy stay in hospital recovering from tuberculosis. Her first novel, Minnow on the Say, was published in 1955. It revolved around two boys who set sail in a canoe one summer in the 1930s, looking for lost treasure from the time of the Spanish Armada.
Gateway to the past
Tom’s Midnight Garden was Pearce's second novel and her most famous. The plot revolves around Tom, a youngster who's sent to stay with his aunt and uncle during the summer holidays. His brother is sick and must be kept in quarantine, so Tom is sent away for his own wellbeing.
Without a garden, and with no other children to play with, he is soon bored, lonely and miserable. However, the fantasy begins when he hears the old grandfather clock striking 13 one night. He's told by his uncle not to touch the clock, as it belongs to the landlady.
To his surprise, after the clock strikes 13, he discovers a secret garden, which appears outside as he opens the front door! The garden is vast and beautiful, totally unlike the current landscape outside his aunt and uncle's house.
Filled with brightly coloured flowers, bushes and shrubs, with ornate archways and hedges cut in topiary designs, a stream runs through the garden and there are spacious open areas, trees to climb and plenty of places to play and run around.
Friendship spans time
Tom meets a little girl, Hatty, in the garden, which is a gateway to the past. They become friends, although Tom doesn't fully understand what's happening and Hatty think he's a ghost, as she has seen him walk through the wall.
He soon realises that his new-found friend is living in a different time altogether and senses she's from the past - the Victorian era. He visits the garden every night and has some wonderful adventures, although Hatty seems to be growing up faster than he is.
He realises that when he leaves the house after the clock strikes 13, he is missing for only a few minutes, yet he seems to have been gone for hours. Hatty grows into a young woman and starts courting a gentleman, Barty, but still remains friends with Tom.
Passage of time
On the final night, before Tom is due to go home, he and Hatty begin to fade to each other and finally can no longer see one another. Tom realises the garden has vanished and is very upset, but after all of his amazing adventures, he finally realises who Hatty is and makes a little more sense of his time-travelling experiences.
The beautifully written novel is a ghost story with a difference. It explores some interesting theories on time travel. Recognised as a poignant examination of growing up, relationships and the passage of time, today it's considered one of the great classics of children's literature.
In 2007, celebrating the 70th anniversary of the launch of the Carnegie Medal, a panel of literary experts awarded Tom's Midnight Garden one of 10 medals given to the best children's books of all time.
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