Beyond the Secret Garden (Paperback) - Ann Thwaite

The definitive and revealing life story of the author of The Secret Garden, Ann Thwaite creates a sympathetic but balanced and eye-opening biography of Frances Hodgson Burnett who enchanted numerous generations of children.

The definitive and revealing biography of the author of The Secret Garden.

Frances Hodgson Burnett's favourite theme in her fiction was the reversal of fortune, and she herself knew extremes of poverty and wealth. Born in Manchester in 1849, she emigrated with her family to Tennessee because of the financial problems caused by the cotton famine. From a young age she published her stories to help the family make ends meet. Only after she married did she publish Little Lord Fauntleroy that shot her into literary stardom.

On the surface, Frances' life was extremely successful: hosting regular literary salons in her home and travelling frequently between properties in the UK and America. But behind the colourful personal and social life, she was a complex and contradictory character. She lost both parents by her twenty-first birthday, Henry James called her "the most heavenly of women" although avoided her; prominent people admired her and there were many friendships as well as an ill-advised marriage to a much younger man that ended in heartache. Her success was punctuated by periods of depression, in one instance brought on by the tragic loss of her eldest son to consumption.

Ann Thwaite creates a sympathetic but balanced and eye-opening biography of the woman who has enchanted numerous generations of children.

About the Author

Ann Thwaite is a prize-winning biographer and children's writer. She was born in London in 1932, but her parents came from New Zealand and she spent the war years there, returning to finish her education at Queen Elizabeth's, Barnet and St Hilda's College, Oxford. She has lived in London, Tokyo, Benghazi and Nashville, Tennessee and has lectured in many countries, but has been based for nearly fifty years by a river in South Norfolk with her husband, the poet and editor, Anthony Thwaite. They have four daughters, six grandsons, four granddaughters and recently their first great-grandson.
For many years Ann wrote and reviewed children's books and ran a library at her home for local children, while working as a contributing editor for an American group of children's magazines. More recently, she was consultant for the film Goodbye Christopher Robin. Eventually released by Fox Searchlight in 2017, it was based on her biography of A. A. Milne. Ann has a D.Litt. from Oxford and has been honoured by a fellowship from the University of Roehampton and a doctorate from the University of East Anglia. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and has benefited as a writer from both Leverhulme and Churchill Fellowships.