This book is a children's fantasy set within the grounds of Valentines Park, a large suburban park in Ilford, north east London. I grew up a few minutes away, and spent a lot of my childhood recreation time there (and, to be honest, a lot of adolescent after-the-gates-were-locked weed smoking time too). My mum, who is about the right age to have been the little girl in the story, found it and passed it to me as a curio. She said, quite rightly, that knowledge of the place helps the imagination! It does, in a lot of ways, but I struggled to people my nostalgia with the gnomes and fairies of this story. It feels older than it is, like a simplistic Victorian childrens story rather than one first published a few years before the moon landing. The characters are crap, the message veers between sensible and mawkish, and the only tension comes from wondering whether or not its going to turn out that Penny was actually dead and a ghost all along. This might seen an odd to say, but my edition was published by the Psychic Press, and the dustjacket contains lists of other books of a spiritualist nature. It is not clear why PP published this book or what it has to do with their glass-moving and table knocking other authors. In the end there is no reason whatsoever to read this book unless you know Valentines Park and want to read a book set there. ( )