An Episode of Sparrows

By the author of Black Narcissus and The River

WITH A FOREWORD BY JACQUELINE WILSON

''A masterpiece of construction and utterly realistically convincing'' JACQUELINE WILSON

''Author Godden here tries her deft writing hand at landscaping a child''s heart'' TIME

''It is a sentimental tale, well told, with an unlikely and entirely satisfactory ending'' NEW YORKER

Someone has been digging up the private garden in the Square. Miss Angela Chesney of the Garden Committee is sure that a gang of local boys is to blame, but her sister, Olivia, isn''t so sure. She wonders why the neighbourhood children - ''sparrows'' she calls them - have to be locked out: don''t they have a right to enjoy the garden too?

Nobody has any idea what sends Lovejoy Mason and her few friends in search of ''good garden earth''. Still less do they imagine where their investigation will lead them - to a struggling restaurant, a bombed-out church, and, at the heart of it all, a hidden garden.

''Only Rumer Godden could make a simple tale of a forbidden garden pulse with suspense'' NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE BOOK REVIEW