Tom has to spend the summer at his aunt's, and it seems as if nothing good will ever happen again. Then he hears the grandfather clock strike thirteen — and everything changes. Outside the door is a garden — a garden that shouldn't exist. Are the children there ghosts, or is it Tom who is the ghost? This Carnegie-Medal-winning modern classic is magically timeless, and has never been out of print. For the 70th anniversary celebration of the Medal, a panel named it one of the top ten Medal-winning works, and the British public elected it the nation's second-favourite. This edition includes all of Susan Einzig's evocative illustrations from the first edition of the book.

When Tom is sent to his aunt's house for the summer he resigns himself to weeks of boredom. Lying awake one night he listens to the grandfather clock in the hall strike every hour. Eleven... Twelve... Thirteen. Thirteen! Tom rushes down the stairs and opens the back door. There, awaiting him, is a beautiful garden. A garden that shouldn't exist. And there are children in the garden too — are they ghosts? Or is it Tom who is really the ghost...