An Episode of Sparrows

INTRODUCED BY JACQUELINE WILSON To Angela they were sparrows because they were cheeky, cocky, common as sparrows; to Olivia nothing was common . . . Someone has been digging up the private garden in gracious Mortimer Square. Miss Angela Chesney of the Garden Committee is certain that a gang of local boys is to blame, but her sister Olivia isn't so sure. Watching the teeming city from her window, she wonders why the neighbourhood children - 'sparrows', she calls them - have to be locked out. Lovejoy Mason - fierce, scrappy, unloved - knows how it feels to be an outsider. But a stolen packet of cornflower seeds sends her in search of some 'good garden earth' - and on a journey that will lead to a struggling restaurant, a bombed-out church, and, at the heart of it all, a hidden garden. 'A masterpiece' JACQUELINE WILSON 'Godden's rich understanding of human nature, her humour and her beautiful prose inevitably leave one aglow' CHICAGO TRIBUNE 'Godden here tries her deft writing hand at landscaping a child's heart' TIME