First published as a US serial in The American Magazine beginning in 1910, The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett [below] was first published as a book in 1911. The American edition by Stokes [below] featured illustrations by Maria Louise Kirk, while illustrations in the British edition published by Heinemann were by Charles Heath Robinson. Burnett was born in Manchester, England in 1849 but after the death of her father, she emigrated with her family to the Knoxville, Tennessee, USA in 1865. 
Read more about the Stokes first edition at Bauman Rare Books.
The story
Mary Lennox, born at the turn of the twentieth century to wealthy British parents in India who do not want her, is cared for by servants. After the death of her parents she is sent to England to Yorkshire, to live with her Uncle Archibald at Misselthwaite Manor. There she is bad-tempered and dislikes everything about her new home until Martha, a maid, tells her the story of Mrs Craven who loved her private walled garden of roses. When his wife died, Mr Craven locked the garden and buried the key. As Mary wonders about the secret garden, her humour and behaviour improves and she makes friends with the gardener. When she finds the key, Mary’s brother Dickon helps Mary to learn about gardening, plants and wildlife. Then one night, exploring a cry in the night, she discovers a boy living in a hidden bedroom. This is Colin, her cousin, who has a damaged spine. She tells Colin of the secret garden and when they visit it together, Colin finds his weak legs can stand after all.
The film
The 1993 film The Secret Garden starred Kate Maberly, Heydon Prowse, Andrew Knott, John Lynch and Maggie Smith. Exterior shots of Misselthwaite Manor were shot at Allerton Castle in Yorkshire, internal scenes at Fountains Hall near Ripon. Watch the film trailer.
Other editions
Read here why The Secret Garden is the ‘Porridge & Cream’ comfort read of novelist Laura Wilkinson.
‘The Secret Garden’ by Frances Hodgson Burnett [UK: Virago] Buy now
If you like old books, check out these:-
‘An Ice Cream War’ by William Boyd
‘The French Lieutenant’s Woman’ by John Fowles
‘Watership Down’ by Richard Adams
And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
First Edition: THE SECRET GARDEN by Frances Hodgson Burnett #oldbooks http://wp.me/p5gEM4-2TQ via @SandraDanby
“I first discovered this book when I was a young girl working in London. My flat mates were into Jilly Cooper novels and couldn’t understand why I was reading such ‘an old book’. I was born close to the area where the narrative takes place and grew up on the borders of the five towns that comprise Stoke-on-Trent. As I read, I remember feeling that I was in a time warp, fantasising that I had walked the same streets as the sisters.
Set in Cumbria and Barbados, Coffee, Tea, The Caribbean & Me follows the lives of Jo and Hattie who are flying solo in their middle years. Is there hope for the newly single baby boomers and can romance happen? Join the pair as they romp into their future and prove that anything is possible. Coffee, Tea, The Caribbean & Me is an Amazon best-seller and a ‘Top Recommended Read’ by Thomson Holidays.
I do have a long list of books I want to re-read, headed by Donna Tartt’s 
When Frank Bale was a lawyer, he wore Savile Row suits. Now he has holes in his trousers and serves papers for other, successful, lawyers. Life is bleak but he is kept going by a Philip Marlowe obsession and a longing to prove himself. When a student winds up dead, he gets the chance to investigate a real crime, relying on advice found in an old Tradecraft Manual and the sayings of his nan. But neither the manual nor his nan nor Marlowe prepare him for handling the slimiest of London’s underbelly, jellyfish, who hit back first with fists, then with golf clubs and finally with guns. Can Frank stay alive long enough to find the killer – and get the girl?
The 1984 film, directed by David Lean, featured Alec Guinness, Dame Peggy Ashcroft and Victor Banerjee. It won two Oscars: Dame Peggy Ashcroft [Mrs Moore], Best Actress in a Supporting Role; and Maurice Jarre for Best Music, Original Score.
The current Penguin edition features a detail from ‘English Women visiting caves near Bangalore’ [c. 1880s]. Photograph courtesy of The British Library.
As a classic, A Passage to India has been published in many editions and languages. Here is a selection of some of the covers. The Italian cover is particularly dashing.
I do recall that my mother and I had recently arrived in the United States and were living in a studio apartment in Washington, DC, while she struggled to make ends meet. The book is a series of articles on Jean Kerr’s life as a playwright and parent, and each of the pieces made me roar with laughter at a time when real life wasn’t that funny. When I first read the book, I found it hugely entertaining on such subjects as diets, doctors, family, fashion, moving house, and the rest of everyday suburban life. It was only decades later that I could identify with Kerr’s situation as a writer working from home, and as the harassed mother of irrepressible boys.
It’s the sweltering summer of 2013 and the lives of six Londoners get complicated. As the temperature soars, they’re grappling with money worries, whining children, ailing parents, panic attacks, relationship woes, and temptations along the way. Emotions rise to boiling point, forcing decisions they could regret.
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Other editions
There have been many editions of this novel, here are some of the other British and US covers.
The novel focuses on the twin Chance sisters, Dora and Nora, their mad theatrical family and their romp through musical hall, early Hollywood and aging disgracefully. It combines fairy tales, Shakespeare, magical realism and brilliant characters and is funny, sad and wicked in equal measure. I have read it many times, it is so multi-layered there is always something new to find, and am usually drawn back to it when I want to be reminded how good writing can play with the reader. Dora and Nora are beautifully-written, wicked women but it is also the setting I love: the early days of Hollywood were an entrancing time. I also taught the novel which is a testament to the writing – any book that can survive the kind of dissection that A level teaching requires and not make you want to throw it through the window after the fifth time is a great story. Interestingly I taught it a couple of times in a boys’ school and was advised against it as the boys wouldn’t get it, it’s too female. They loved it – it’s pretty rude.
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