The Secret Garden

The Secret Garden has been cherished by generations of readers since its first appearance in 1911. In what is certainly the most beautiful full color edition of this acknowledged children’s classic, Mary Lennox, a sullen, spoiled child, comes to live with her English uncle after her parents’ deaths. Implanted in Misselthwaite Manor on the baleful moors of Yorkshire, she meets a hearty housekeeper and her spirited brother, a dear gardener, a cheerful robin, and Master Colin, her willful, mysterious, sickly cousin. The robin helps Mary find the door to the secret garden, and from there the story takes the reader on a spellbinding journey into the places of the heart where faith restores health, where flowers refresh the spirit, and where the magic of a garden coming to life after years of neglect serves as a metaphor for the miraculous recovery of a bed-ridden boy.

The characters and the story are as fresh today as they were when the book was first published. Graham Rust’s illustrations, with their delicate period flavor and detail, bring to life the whole cast of characters and, of course, the secret garden itself – “the sweetest, most mysterious-looking place anyone could imagine.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett was an American-English novelist and playwright. She is best known for the three children's novels Little Lord Fauntleroy (published in 1885–1886), A Little Princess (1905), and The Secret Garden (1911).

Graham Redgrave-Rust was born in Hertfordshire, England, and studied at the Regent Street Polytechnic School of Art, The Central School of Arts and Crafts, and The National Academy of Art in New York. In addition to his book illustrations, he is internationally renowned for his murals and ceiling paintings, which can be found in grand homes around the world. The most spectacular of these, “The Temptation” at the Ragley Hall, Warwickshire, took over a decade to complete. He lives and works in Suffolk, England.