Anyone who is enchanted by The Secret Garden should read this beautiful book. The illustrations are delightful as is the prose, showing McDowell's love of gardening and authors.
I enjoyed reading about how Burnett's life was echoed in the characters in her children's stories.
I have put a physical copy on my Christmas list. I'm sure it's even more special than the digital edition.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a great book and I really enjoyed reading it. It was definitely different than anything I've read before and it was a breath of fresh air.

Wonderful glimpse into the author’s life and her inspiration…

The Secret Garden is one of my favourite reads growing up. The book that was borrowed from the library constantly until I had my own copy. Then that copy became dog-eared and had to be replaced over the years. This book takes a deeper look into the author’s personal life and the many inspirations she had for the secret garden.

Tell me how excited I was to hear the birds, the hidden door, even the characters grew from real life! Following the author from her youth, every place she lived in, the people she met, all that were her muse. The flowers and gardens were of course the focus and the details were shared with enthusiasm. The love for each bloom was very much felt and appreciated.

Well-written with information shared in an interesting and conversational style, the pictures that accompanied them made for wonderful insight and a great read! My next re-read of TSG will have me appreciating (and understanding) it that much more… Highly recommend.

Full of fun details, pictures and insights, this is a must read for fans of the Secret Garden. I fell in love with the book as a child, and never fell out of love with the book and its author. This book gives us wonderful insights into how Frances Hodges Burnett came up with some of the details for the garden. I absolutely loved this book and the pictures inside!

The Secret Garden is one of my favorite classics, so I enjoyed learning more about the author through the different gardens she planned and planted in the different places she lived and what inspired her like her special robin friend. Definitely encouraged to put more effort into my gardening endeavors.

This book is interesting and beautifully produced. As someone who loves The Secret Garden but didn't know much about the author, I enjoyed learning more about her life and how it tied into her best-known work. I really loved the sections that spoke about her writing. I'm a bit of a half-hearted gardener myself, and I mainly work with vegetables, so the flower gardening talk was a bit lost on me at times. That being said, it was not too technical so I would recommend to folks with a passing interest, like myself. It's a bit too specific of a topic for my library, but I think it achieves what it sets out to do very satisfactorily.

As a gardener and a love of The Secret Garden, I was really excited to read this book. I loved the pictures and the artwork. The book is beautiful and would be a great gift for gardeners and book lovers alike.

Oh my goodness, what a beautiful book. The author explores the homes and gardens of Frances Hodgson Burnett, author of The Secret Garden. She always loved gardens, and as she acquired the wealth to improve them, she did. This book is lavishly and beautifully illustrated with photographs and drawings. The text is easy to read, and provides a biographical overview for Burnett. It also includes excerpts from some of her writings, as well as a catalogue of her favorite plants and flowers. I cannot recommend this book enough. It will inspire you to create a haven in your own garden, if you haven't already. #UnearthingTheSecretGarden #NetGalley

This is a really detailed, lovely book about Frances Hodgson Burnett, her life, and her gardens. I was hoping for more of a garden book but this is definitely more of a biography. It's a wonderful one though, especially for those who are fans of Burnett's books.

I always loved the Secret Garden but I didn't know about Frances Burnett's life.
This was a fascinating discovery of Burnett's life, gardens and what is behind The Secret Garden.
Great illustration, well researched and enthralling. I travel in time and space and learned something new.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Unearthing The Secret Garden is also subtitled The Plants and Places That Inspired Frances Hodgson Burnett. Marta McDowell’s book is actually about the second part of the title, the places that Frances Hodgson Burnett lived and the gardens that she loved when she was at those places. While some of The Secret Garden is incorporated into the book it is mostly about the author of that book.

I did not discover The Secret Garden until I was an adult. It is a story I learned to love especially the positive changes and growth in the young characters. However, I never realized how much that Frances Hodgson Burnett's gardens play in her enjoyment of life. Along with the narrative there are garden photographs that include Frances Hodgson Burnett, more recent drawings, and plant photos.

Unearthing The Secret Garden is an interesting easy to read book. I would recommend this book to anyone who has enjoyed The Secret Garden but also to those who enjoys visiting gardens.

The publisher through Net Galley provided a digital ARC. I have voluntarily decided to read and review, giving my personal opinions and thoughts.

I very much wanted to read this but unfortunately, it's not available for kindle. Looks like a good one. Thanks for the ARC.

Rated on my blog as 4 1/2 stars...
Peel back the cover and enter the hidden entrance into the world of Frances Hodgson Burnett, a greatly celebrated author, and discover a world of gardens and writing and more and uncover some new information...Unearthing The Secret Garden is a lovely and interesting book for gardeners, fans of Frances Hodgson Burnett and of course - The Secret Garden. The book seems well researched and well thoughtout. It's part biograpghy and part about the plants that inspired Frances Hodgson Burnett whilst writing this much treasured children's book, that has indeed become a much-loved classic that's even inspired films.

The book provides a glimpse into her life and her gardens and the flowers she liked so well. The flowers are simply beautiful and there are even some useful tips, making this attractive to any gardener reading this book.

The book tells of how she was born in Manchester, England in 1849 and later became friends with Little Women series writer - Louisa May Alcott when her and her mother moved to the USA after the death of her father

It tells of how she started writing young and yet hadn't actually created her own garden until she was middle-aged. She infact created many gardens. There are interesting articles that have been reproduced for this book, which add a bit of depth and what's even more special is, it of course adds her voice as it were, her first hand accounts. There are also photos of her gardens, including Maytham in the UK, how they are presently. The book tells of Maytham being inspirational for transforming for The Secret Garden, into being called Misselthwaite Manor.

There is much love and heartbreak that is shown in Frances Hodgson Burnett's life, including family as well as the homes she lived in between the UK and US. It shows within times of upheaval and sadness, how gardens became a place of solace and brought something positive again into her life. The book also looks into her writing life and tells of some, perhaps lesser known books, which is a lovely touch and may inspire readers to explore those too.

It's overall a fascinating read that has passion from page to page and you can tell that a whole lot of research went into creating this beautiful book that gives a sizeable glimpse into life - both personal and writing life and her gardens.

Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden remains one of my most beloved books of all time, both in childhood and now as an adult. It contributed to my curiosity and imagination as a child...I secretly named sloughs, houses and park walkways pretty names, as she did. And still do! Gardening was essential for Hodgson Burnett's mental and physical health and taught her more about nature and life than any education could. This delightful book describes snippets of her childhood and in greater detail her gardening/horticulture/writing life. Her flowery and insightful writing was remarkable a century ago, remains lovely to this day and surely will in the future. So easy to lose oneself in.

Marta McDowell writes about Hodgson-Burnett''s marriages and children, one of whom sadly died as a youth. Her personal fears, sorrows and joys are described as she moves from home to home and plans her gardens. Leaving her beloved Maytham must have been utterly crushing. As a master gardener myself, the glorious descriptions and photographs about America lindens, chestnuts, roses, delphiniums and zinnias fill me with happiness. Oh, to have gardens as she did! And the roses...I could almost smell them when reading. McDowell really made Hodgson-Burnett's life come to life in an all-sensory way. But it's more than that...it's the cover, The Secret Garden illustrations, botanical art, dinner guests' sketches and quotes which all come together to create a very aesthetically and emotionally enchanting read. Not only was she besotted with roses but also cheery robins and garden critters. The photos of her in her gardens with her fancy hats and dresses definitely tell of a different time, but such a fascinating time! As if this beauty weren't enough, McDowell also includes short works by Hodgson-Burnett. I love the stories about her generous rose cuttings and practical tips but most of all, the insight into her story. The most breathtaking photograph is that of the cascading roses over the blue door. This is precisely how I imagined The Secret Garden to look.

"Garden where you are. Garden with what you have. Simply garden." Brilliant. And so very true. All fans of Frances Hodgson-Burnett ought to read this book. And if you haven't yet read The Secret Garden, you are never too old.

My sincere thank you to Timber Press and NetGalley for the privilege of reading this astounding book about one of the most deliciously descriptive authors ever!

If you loved The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett as a child, as I did, you and I belong to select group of adults who yearn for their own secret garden, lush, filled with beautiful blooms, secret and private, and surrounded by a high wall to allow us to escape from the everyday, humdrum world. If you loved that book, you will love this book, too. Ms. McDowell has opened an eminently readable history of Ms. Burnett's own life, and her life as a gardener, by focusing on three gardens that Ms. Burnett planted and nurtured at three of her homes: one in England, one in New York, and one in Bermuda. Each garden was different, and each garden was special. Each garden is described in lovely terms and when possible, accompanied by many photographs. I loved seeing the real secret garden, where Burnett wrote, and reading her own essay about her very special robin. I loved the biography of Burnett as seen through her gardens and flower choices, and the final chapter by her great-granddaughter was a joy. Lavishly illustrated with photos from the various houses showing the gardens (oh, how I with there was color photography in the early twentieth century!) and those bits that still remain at her house in England, one can truly understand why The Secret Garden was the amazing book it was and remains--Burnett's love of flowers and gardening, and her innate understanding of the life cycles of flowers, plants, trees, nature itself, weave through her books and through Ms. McDowell's appreciation. The book is subtitled "The Plants and Places That Inspired Frances Hodgson Burnett," and anyone reading this book will be equally inspired. This is a great gift for a garden lover or someone who read The Secret Garden over and over as a child, and who longs to escape back to it, if only for a little while. What a wonderful book, and truly one of my favorites this year.

Having grown up loving The Secret Garden and often calling gorgeous places by the same name-- this book tugged at my heartstrings. A wonderful mix of history, biography and gardening paired with gorgeous illustrations and real photos, this book belongs on any Secret Garden fans' shelf! I will be looking up other Marta McDowell books. Just lovely!

A beautifully formatted and well presented book. A very interesting read which added a beautiful element to a classic story.

Unearthing The Secret Garden is a gently written hybrid biography and period historical garden inspiration written and curated by Marta McDowell. Due out 12th Oct 2021, from Workman Publishing on their Timber Press imprint, it's 320 pages and will be available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats.

I read The Secret Garden in my childhood and like so many others, it helped to inculcate in me a love of planting seeds, caring for my small garden patch (in my grandparent's garden) and later plants wherever I found myself. This book is a nice homage to both Burnett's life and her own (real life) gardens as well as the other horticultural writing she produced, and some garden inspiration for translation into readers' own green spaces.

The biography follows Burnett's childhood, life in England, subsequent emigration to America, and adulthood - in the words of author McDowell a riches to rags to riches story.

The book is beautifully illustrated throughout with photographs and facsimile reproductions of illustrations from early editions of The Secret Garden. The photos and facsimiles are captioned and provide insight into Burnett's life, family, and social circles. There are also numerous excerpts from personal correspondence and news and other print media appearances, being one of the most highly paid authors of her time.

Five stars. I found the book engaging, well written, beautifully illustrated and full of both biographical narrative and gardening inspiration.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

I had no idea Frances Hodgkins Burnett was so well traveled. This delightful accompaniment to The Secret Garden, is a treasure. The book brings the author to life. This is refreshing because, as a reader who has read The Secret Garden several times, it opens the gate again only with new eyes and the thrill of discovering why this cherished classic was written by this most fascinating author.

I actually had an idea once to write a similar book, but McDowell did a much better job than I could ever do. The book is well-researched and provides an overview of both Burnett's life and her gardens and how they inspired The Secret Garden. She was a much more interesting person than I ever would have thought. I think this would have broad appeal to those familiar with Burnett's work but also those interested in gardening and biographies. It's not as densely written as a typical biography. It provides just enough of a glimpse to understand Burnett and her gardens.