Yorkshire's Secret
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is probably one of the best children books ever written. It starts out like it means to be a high gothic drama, with spoiled little Mary losing her family in India and being sent to live with distant relatives in a dark and cold mansion on the Yorkshire moors. She's left to her own devises in the large house because nobody has time for her - especially not the serious and remote Lord of the house - and soon she's hearing strange cries in the night from one of the bedrooms. But all of this is just suspense wisely used to hook the reader. It's when she meets the gardner and starts spending more time outdoors (something she never did in India) that sun literally pours in and the book turns into a homage to Yorkshire's beauty.
There's a particular garden on the grounds that nobody has been inside for ten years - a secret garden that doesn't even have a visible door anymore. Mary discovers its entrance with the help of a bird and soon she's enlisted a local boy (who talks to animals and smokes pipes) to help her clear it.
I felt as happy finishing this read as I did when reading Pride and Prejudice. Only I now have a really strong desire to get back into gardening!
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