The flower garden - A Changi secret by Claire Saxby. Illus. by Lucia Masciullo

I have a secret – we have a secret –
in this place where secrets are not allowed.

Imagine you're a child with all the natural curiosity, imagination, energy and exuberance that goes with childhood.  But instead of being able wander and explore the world around you, that wall is bounded by high walls and barbed wire, patrolled and guarded by brutal soldiers who did not hesitate to impose their power - even on little children.  Such was the life of many children and their mothers who were long-time residents of Malaya and Singapore but who, with the fall of both countries to the Japanese in February 1942, were herded like animals into the notorious Changi Prison, and treated as such. Days were spent tending the gardens to grow food for their captors in the morning and then on rows of hard benches learning "numbers, words and formulas" and secret songs under the watchful eyes and ears of gun-carrying soldiers in the afternoons. Not until dusk fell was their time their own.

But in that time, the women tried to make life a little more normal for the children, and one in particular, Mrs Elizabeth Ennis, an army nursing sister began a secret Girl Guides group and taught them how to take their minds, if not their bodies, far beyond the prison walls.  So as her birthday approaches, it is time to make a special present, and in this sensitive, softly illustrated story, Saxby and Masciullo not only divulge what that gift will be but expose the lives of those who made it and the risks they took to do so.

The horrors of Changi have been on my radar since my own childhood because even though my dad was a POW in Germany and eventually force-marched across Poland as part of the Germans' human shield, even in those days long before television, let alone the internet, the atrocities and barbarities of Changi were known, and the brutality of the captors was being revealed by those like my future father-in-law who miraculously survived the men's camp, as well as in stories like Nevil Shute's A Town Like Alice, and movies like The Bridge on the River Kwai (where my f-i-l ended up).  Yet from the depths of the darkest despair, the human spirit soared and stories like the making of this precious gift have emerged.

As I read this book, including the author's note that offers a short background history of the time, I wanted to know more and a simple search brought many links including stories of those who helped make it, a history of the quilt itself, including close-up photos of it in the Imperial War Museum, as well as information about the other quilts that were made, including the Australian quilt. 

Teacher's notes are available.

Themes: Prisoners of war, Changi (Singapore) - History, Birthdays.

Barbara Braxton