Under the autumn garden (by Jan Mark)

(Amazon UK link)

'Under the autumn garden' is a children's book by Jan Mark. I've no idea where we picked it up; we have quite a few random books on our shelves at present. It seemed like one that would be suitable for reading aloud to my sons, aged 10 and 12.

I don't think I have ever read a fictional book with so little plot. In a nutshell: Matthew decides to dig for historical artefacts in his garden rather than get on with his history homework. 

And that's about it.

Still, there's some nice humour here and there in the book, which we probably appreciated more because I was reading aloud. There's also a delightful character in the form of Matthew's crusty neighbour, Mr Bagnall. He reminded us quite strongly of a teacher we used to know. 

But it's a remarkably slow-moving book. We kept thinking something interesting would happen... and kept being disappointed.

Not a book that any of us is likely to read again. 

Review copyright 1999 Sue's Book Reviews