Jacqueline Wilson: ‘The first book that made me cry’

<i>Rumer Godden’s </i>An Episode of Sparrows, <i>first published in 1955, focuses on the roaming children — the ‘sparrows’ — of a shabby street in bomb-torn London. When ten-year-old Lovejoy Mason finds a packet of cornflower seeds and decides to create an ‘Italian’ garden hidden in a rubble-strewn churchyard, the consequences are life-changing for all who become involved. </i><i>Below is the foreword to a recent reissue of the novel (Virago Modern Classics, £7.99, Spectator Bookshop, £7.49).</i>

• From magazine issue: 12 April 2014