Mary Lennox

Yeah.

So, um, it was The Secret Garden, and I was playing Mary Lennox.

And the song was Wick.

Um, and it was a song sung between the character Mary and the character Dickon.

This is where The Secret Garden was born, not just from imagination, but from Frances' direct experience of how gardening and nature could heal grief and renew life.

The garden at Maytham Hall was her own locked garden that she brought back to life, just as Mary would do in the novel.

Frances lived transatlantically, never quite belonging fully to England or America, moving between both countries and drawing on both cultures in her work.

She was successful, famous, wealthy from her writing, but also marked by loss and always seeking transformation and renewal.

Sara creates community and maintains compassion even when she has nothing material to offer.

The Secret Garden, published in 1911, is Frances Hodgson Burnett's masterpiece, and it's one of the most psychologically sophisticated children's books ever written.

The novel begins with Mary Lennox, possibly the most unpleasant child protagonist in children's literature.

She's the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen.