Leon Garfield's "Apprentice" stories are not for a young reading age, despite the somewhat misleading format and plentiful illustration. In these terse, ironic tales there is a concentration of imagery, an elusive technique of characterisation and a breadth of social comment which demand an alert reader (I suggest, ten and over) ready to accept an idiosyncratic but authentic view of the past. Like their predecessors in the series, the present books, numbered 5 to 8, contain several linking devices. The London scene shifts from one street to another within the City, from St. Martin's Churchyard in The Valentine to a dingy yard off Old 'Change in Labour in Vain, from a Jewish clockmaker's in Carter Lane in The Fool to Drury Lane and its alleyways in Rosy Starling. Each tale is marked by a festival…. Beyond the links of place and circumstance there are deeper links in theme, for each of these caustic, sharply documented tales turns on imposture, self-deception, change and—in a sense—growing up. When the sequence is complete I am sure it will stand out as one of the most notable individual commentaries of our time on the vanity of human wishes, a lesson anyone could learn willingly through this unique combination of historical detail and universal feeling. (pp. 3199-200)

That Leon Garfield is a fine writer is unquestionable, but even so, many of his books have been beyond the range of many children. This is not a criticism of the writer, more one of the level at which many children are able to read and interpret what they read. His books have been a delight to those with the ability to appreciate them but above the limits of many. This makes the Apprentice series so much more welcome; the style, the skill of a superb story teller, the imaginative tale are all here in miniature and this has made the best in modern children's literature possible for a much wider readership. The Valentine tells of a young girl, daughter of an undertaker who pines after one of her father's previous "clients". A rival firm employs an apprentice, Hawkins, whom she loathes as being instrumental in taking business away from her family's business. The two young people are isolated in their macabre trade, their romance starts among the graves. There is a wry humour and great sympathy in this story which is beautifully written. (p. 351)

The Junior Bookshelf, December, 1977.