The Last Leaf

'You will have to place a small handful of the maggots under your tongue, and must hold them there for a full two minutes,' Jack instructed Isabella. And boy did they wriggle! She struggled not to wretch! Two worlds collide when a chance meeting brings together Jack and Isabella. Jack, the son of the Head Gardener of the Oakfield Estate, finds himself a friend in the lovely Isabella, the 'little lady of Oakfield Hall'. Set in Victorian times in the Southern Counties of England - with an intermittent welsh presence in the form of the Jones' travelling gypsy family - much laughter, dance, music and cultural challenges lie before the two friends this summer! How will the delicate Isabella fair among the unfamiliar countryside with its host of creatures and seasonal demands? Will the rugged, uneducated Jack rise to the challenge of learning to read and write poetry about his beloved countryside - poaching, skinning rabbits and river fishing? Every day is an adventure and it seems they are meant to be together, always. Or are they? Read about their exciting adventures and discover the true meaning of friendship with them as they each discover new worlds and new challenges! 

Gwyn Ellis Pritchard's first novel for older children, The Last Leaf, was inspired by a story his own father used to tell him when he was just a child. Gwyn then shared the same story about a friendship between two children in the Victoria era with his own young family.