Secret Gardens

For school holidays we spontaneously visited the Palace cinema in Byron for the first time since it’s re-opening. The film The Secret Garden was playing. We sat in the dark in pregnant anticipation. Popcorn was fleeting. The film swallowed us whole: a gripping visual, emotional, aural feast. The close and intuitive realism in capturing nature and light enchanted us both, older and younger human alike. Based on a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett and published in 1911, The Secret Garden became recognised after the author’s death as a classic of children’s literature. A story of transformation where devastating loss, false self, illusion and separation flower into joy, truth, connection and freedom, it has universal meaning.  Mary Lennox, the little girl at the heart of the story, changes from being a short-tempered, rude, lonely orphan into a bold, open-hearted, loving adventuress. Taking risks and breaking rules brings her to the secret garden. Walled, hidden, magical, wildly beautiful and born of its own intelligence the garden is also an active hero. It holds secret knowledge and heals the ailing. The symbolism is clear showing Nature’s ability to give us self-knowledge and set us free. That freedom and innocence of children outside of structured society, the wisdom of a child’s autonomy and repeated reconnection of parents to their children are all invaluable treasures to be protected. My daughter took me by the hand down the aisle at the end of the movie to dance to the credit music by Aurora and despite feeling self-conscious I danced too. Everyone else had left. It was a moment in time I will never forget. The one hundred and nine year old story, now a British fantasy film here in 2020, inspired our own discussions, crafternoons, Nature-loving observations of the living world around us. A book barely acknowledged in its time, that came into its own power over decades and after a century generated a film to inspire millions of people is quite an astonishing marvel of how stories will do anything to be told!