The Secret Garden

I still have the battered copy of The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, which I got for my tenth birthday.I absolutely love the story and could not wait to read it to my own son, which I did when he was about 8.

The book was published in 1909 so the language is a bit old fashioned but the story is still one of my favourites.

A ten year old girl called Mary Lennox finds her world turned upside down when a cholera epidemic wipes out her family in India. She is sent to live at Misselthwaite Manor in Yorkshire with her very distant Uncle Craven. Unsurprisingly, Mary is grumpy and ill tempered, but is brought out of her shell by her maid Martha who is an outgoing, friendly, farm girl.

Her tale of the locked garden intrigues Mary so much that she spends hours outside looking for it. She makes friends with the gardener and Martha’s brother Dickon and discovers someone else in the house who becomes her friend. A real feel good story.