When the mysterious grandfather clock in the hall strikes 13, Tom is transported back in time, finding a beautiful garden outside and a young playmate called Hatty.

Philippa Pearce talks about the inspiration behind Tom's Midnight Garden

I spoke to the book's author Philippa Pearce, who lives in Great Shelford in Cambridgeshire, who told me the idea for the story had very local origins.

The youngest of four children, she was the daughter of a flour miller and corn merchant and grew up in Cambridgeshire.

They lived in a mill, where her father and grandfather had both lived and worked the trade of corn milling.

"Decisive moment"

It was when her father decided to retire and sell the property, bringing about an end to a family tradition and a farewell to a familiar home that Philippa - then a young woman in her 30s - came up with an idea for a story.

"When my father sold the mill it was not as a going concern and there had been a mill on the site since Doomsday, so it was quite a decisive moment in our lives," she said.

"Both he and my grandfather had lived in the mill which had a beautiful garden," she said.
"My father used to tell me about what he and his siblings did in the garden and I played there with my two brothers and sister.

Ms Pearce wrote the award-winning Tom's Midnight Garden in 1957 and is delighted to see it brought to the stage nearly half a decade later.

"I am not a science-fiction writer, but I feel, perhaps as many older people feel, that time is mysterious and it is interesting to see how people's characters change."

Childhood conflict

The theme of time and its various layers is explored in the book, with the down-to-earth Tom.

"I wanted very much for him to be an 'ordinary boy', none of my characters are dreamers and he wants to investigate what he finds," she said.

The book also deals with the departure every child has to make from childhood, using Tom's yearning for the magical garden conflicting with his desire to restart life with his brother at home.

The book took some time in reaching the stage, despite being adapted for both television and film and Ms Pearce admitted this was down to reluctance on her part.

"You can do so much with film and television, but the theatre can have limitations so I was not sure.

"But I had seen David Wood's work before and he allowed me to work very closely with him and I felt he really understood what I was driving at, so I was happy."

She has seen a production of the David Wood play in Bromley, describing it as "wonderful" and hopes to see this latest production by the Birmingham Stage Company before the end of the tour.

Still writing

Still living in Cambridgeshire and very close to the mill where she grew up, Ms Pearce has written many bestselling children's novels besides Tom's Midnight Garden.

A Dog So Small, The Way to the Sattin Shore and The Battle of Bubble and Squeak, which won the prestigious Whitebread Award in 1978 are among them.

Educated at Cambridge Girls School and then Girton College, Ms Pearce lived in London where she worked as a script writer and producer for the schools department of the BBC.

She went on to become an editor first at Oxford University Press and then at the publishers Andre Deutsch.

But at the grand old age of 84 with a daughter and two grandchildren, Ms Pearce has never lost her zest for writing.

"I can't churn out books as often as I used to, but I do like writing short stories. When I settle down to it I can write one in a couple of months," she said.

She does have a book set to hit the shelves in November, a book for older children called The Little Gentleman, and whose central character is a girl!

"It incorporates history, time and a bit of witchcraft," she said.

But writing a "bestseller" these days is very different and Ms Pearce says she is amazed at the level-headed approach of JK Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series, when surrounded by a media circus each time a new book is published.

She herself says the Potter books are hugely entertaining, although she "struggles" at little with them and finds children's author Philip Pullman more to her taste.

Ms Pearce maintains a love of writing for children, who she says are among the best critics.

"You should never underestimate children, they can understand a lot more than we think if we simply put it in context," she said.

Find out more about the classic children's tale of Tom's Midnight Garden as it comes to the stage at the Wycombe Swan here.

The Gardener's Diary