The Flower Garden – A Changi Secret

The Flower Garden – A Changi Secret

Claire Saxby

Lucia Masciullo

Walker Books, 2026

32pp., hbk.,  RRP $A25.99

9781760657352

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 to wander and explore the world around you, that world is bounded by high walls and barbed wire, patrolled and guarded by brutal soldiers who do 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. 

girl guide quilt, Changi, Far East Civilian Internee Image: © IWM (EPH 9206)

However, this is not primarily a book for an older, quilt-loving  adult like me but one for younger readers – those, who, had they lived in another time and place, might have been in it – and so, once again, using her gift to use words to put real life into the realm of young readers, Saxby has opened up a whole new world that exemplifies the courage, determination and kindness of humanity even when confronted with its worst aspects, and Masciullo’s illustrations whose tiny details like the child finding wonder in the garden regardless of the overbearing soldier who dominates the image depict resilience and hope and the eternal love of adults determined to protect their children.

Some might question whether this is a topic that its intended audience need know about or, if indeed, it is one they can cope with, but whoever wrote the teachers’ notes is to be congratulated on their thoughtful approach that explores both the story and the history in a way that builds and supports the child’s historical knowledge, social awareness and emotional intelligence, even encouraging the class to create its own quilt. Probing questions that encourage them to think more deeply, understand the lives of others (which some in the class may have experienced in a different context), and focus on those human traits of hope, kindness, courage and empathy underpin an outstanding investigation inspired by the book but which have the potential to be so much broader and longer-lasting.

Among all the books I have read and reviewed over time, this is a stand-out and a must-have in any collection of those who want to better understand how a “simple” story can reveal so much more than the words on the page.