How I loved The Secret Garden as a child - the slow-building, spellbinding sense of magic, the enchantment of nature, the gradual, glowing, transformative friendship between (initially moody, miserable) Mary and Dickon.
While the period The Secret Garden evokes is very different from our own, the magical elements at its heart radiate through the particulars of its age. And what better way to introduce today’s young readers to the magic than with this Wordsworth Collector’s Edition? With a stylishly illustrated cover - replete with gold foil - and lovely hardback format, this will add plenty of panache to home and school libraries.
Mary Lennox was horrid. Selfish and spoilt, she was sent to stay with her hunchback uncle in Yorkshire. She hated it.
But when she finds the way into a secret garden and begins to tend to it, a change comes over her and her life. She meets and befriends a local boy, the talented Dickon, and comes across her sickly cousin Colin who had been kept hidden from her. Between them, the three children work astonishing magic in themselves and those around them.
The Secret Garden is one of the best-loved stories of all time.