[No] one merges past and present more seamlessly and masterfully than William Mayne. In some of his settings, the past is embodied in relics and monuments which litter the landscape, it incarnates itself in optical effects of light, it spills out of the cracks in the sky, it moves restively under the soil, it maintains a kind of urgent pressure on the present day. (p. 440)

Jane Langton, in The Horn Book Magazine (copyright © 1973 by The Horn Book, Inc., Boston), October, 1973.